The Flower in Adversity
by sirbartonslady
Summary: An urgent message from Sunagakure prompts Tsunade to send three squads to its aid. War breaks out between the Hidden Villages of the five major countries. Sequel to 'Just Go My Way'
1. Prologue: The Winter's Heart

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**Author's Note**: This story is set ten and a half years after the start of the series. That means all the characters are more than ten years older than they were when first introduced (well, with exception of the characters introduced after the Time-Skip---but you get the picture). Since the canon story is far from concluded, I'm basing this particular story on canon as it stands right now, which is about Chapter 360. From there, I've made my own conclusions and advanced the story forward. Therefore, there are likely to be some things I will mention here that Kishimoto-sensei's future chapters of the manga will render untrue, so this may turn out to be somewhat AU.

I'm also taking some artistic license and liberty with several of the characters' families or pasts, since they were never really touched upon in the manga.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own any part of "Naruto" or its characters. It all belongs to the incomparable Masashi Kishimoto-sensei. I'm just playing in the sandbox of this amazing world.

* * *

_"The flower which blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all." --proverb from "Mulan"_

* * *

**"The Flower in Adversity"  
Prologue: The Winter's Heart**

The missing-nin perched on a rocky outcrop several hundred meters above the walls surrounding Sunagakure. He sat here every evening until it became too cold and windy; he hated that village with a fury, and kept hoping for a chance to even the score with it. He didn't even remember why he hated it, or who exactly he hated within it. Only that he hated it. Hated its Kazekage, and hated its innocent children civilians. He hated its walls and its very presence. He even hated this desert.

His icy heart just hated everything nowadays. Now that vengeance had been served, he had nothing to live for but to act out the hatred that had taken root in his spirit.

He had faced down with that redheaded freak that called himself the Godaime Kazekage, several times. He vaguely remembered once facing him years and years ago, in a very different, temperate setting. But now, this young man had the might of Sunagakure... nay, the entire Kaze no Kuni, to back him up. And that short runt of a Kazekage had the cheek to be unintimidated by him!

The missing-nin clenched his hands in the sand, compressing it into a sandy pebble and hurling it at the walls of Sunagakure. The village had admirable defenses; no one not bearing a Suna or Konoha hitai-ate could enter without first passing a rigorous inspection. The missing-nin, who called no village home, who had had no home of his own for longer than he could remember, of course couldn't possibly hope to get into the village.

Until he had a clear target, he would content himself to sit and watch and hate.

However, on this particular night, the night of the first quarter moon, something was different. The main gate of Suna closed up tight at sundown as always, but shortly before midnight, a smaller gate off to the side, a gate that was hardly ever used for anything, opened cautiously, and three ninja strode out onto the cold sand. The missing-nin's eyes narrowed and he raised a spyglass to his eye; it was the Kazekage and his two elder siblings. An unusual thing, for the Kazekage to leave the village in such secret, with only a skeleton-crew escort. While the Kazekage really didn't _need_ an escort at most times, being the most powerful, strongest and most battle-hardened ninja in all of the Sand village, when he did leave his village, it was always with a sizeable escort, because his position as village leader commanded it.

And yet here he was, irresponsibly leaving his village in secret, with only his siblings in tow, while war simmered just below the horizon.

He was playing right into Kirigakure's hands, really. Stupid Kazekage.

The missing-nin watched apathetically as the Kazekage and his two jounin followers took off at high speed east-by-northeast. Foolish Kazekage, abandoning his village. It served him right that his village would be annihilated in his frivolous absense.

As he watched them until they were too far for even his sight to see, he pondered which village would attack the Sand village first, and if he should try to slip in with them, to exact his revenge, whatever it was, on the Sand village that he hated so. If it was Iwagakure, he would slide in; he imagined he could blend in without much fuss. If it was Kumogakure, it might be more difficult. If it was Kirigakure, he would merely sit here and watch; he hated the Mist village almost as much as he hated the Sand and Leaf villages.

He spied movement far beyond the walls of the village. Someone was moving in toward the village. The seige was about to begin. It was so incredibly predictable. How that Kazekage had failed to see this coming was anyone's guess. Naive young bastard. He hated stupid young idiots like that.

Really, though, there wasn't much that Uchiha Sasuke didn't hate anymore. He couldn't remember his life before this deep-seated hatred. As he watched enemy ninjas close in on Sunagakure, he could feel only apathy and discontent. Not even the impending destruction of Sunagakure gave him joy.


	2. Part One: The Distress Call

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**Author's Note**: This story is set ten and a half years after the start of the series. That means all the characters are more than ten years older than they were when first introduced (well, with exception of the characters introduced after the Time-Skip---but you get the picture). Since the canon story is far from concluded, I'm basing this particular story on canon as it stands right now, which is about Chapter 360. From there, I've made my own conclusions and advanced the story forward. Therefore, there are likely to be some things I will mention here that Kishimoto-sensei's future chapters of the manga will render untrue, so this may turn out to be somewhat AU.

I'm also taking some artistic license and liberty with several of the characters' families or pasts, since they were never really touched upon in the manga.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own any part of "Naruto" or its characters. It all belongs to the incomparable Masashi Kishimoto-sensei. I'm just playing in the sandbox of this amazing world.

* * *

_"The flower which blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all." --proverb from "Mulan"_

* * *

**"The Flower in Adversity"  
Part One: The Distress Call**

The seasons in Konohagakure, the primary ninja village in the Fire Country, were not spectacular in their changes, but were beautiful nonetheless. Because of the village's location in a very temperate climate, it never got too hot or too cold in Konoha, but it did have seasons. It got chilly in winter, but not cold enough to completely freeze. Likewise, it got very warm in summer, but not hot enough to interrupt daily life or damage structures. In contrast to its allied village, the desert village of Sunagakure in the Wind Country, Konoha's climate was steady, ideal for agriculture and textiles, which bolstered the village's prosperity, enabling it to not rely as heavily on its daimyou or patron country to keep its non-shinobi citizens fed and happy. The shops in the heart of Konoha opened daily just after sunrise, and were usually steadily busy all through the day.

One particularly beautiful winter morning, some twenty minutes past full sunrise, the day dawned clear and bright, chilly enough that everyone needed long sleeves and high necklines, and some of the more thin-skinned needed gloves and thicker boots, but with no precipitation. The sun shone through the forest leaves with a sparkling freshness, and the chilly nip in the air seemed to invigorate everyone out and about.

Haruno Tsubaki tied her shoulder-length mane of fiery red hair back into a taut bun and threw open the doors and windows of her bakery, letting the aroma of freshly baked cinnamon breads roll out onto the main street. Her niece, Ayame, one of her few employees, was placing the loaves into their selling baskets, while Tsubaki's husband Noboru raised the flag of business, signaling to all customers that Haruno Bakery was open for business for the day.

Neither of them expected their very first customer to be their daughter Sakura, a high ranking medic-nin in the village.

"Good morning!" the kunoichi said brightly as she poked her head in the door. "It smells divine in here! New recipe?"

"Sakura!" Tsubaki nearly dropped the tray in her hands in her surprise. "What are you doing up so early?"

"Grocery shopping," Sakura said, making a face. "We want to get it out of the way as early as possible."

"Well, that's understandable," Ayame quipped, grinning at her cousin. "Didn't expect you up this early though. I'd have wagered you'd be asleep by now."

Sakura turned red. "Oh, stuff it!"

Sakura and her newly-wed husband, Rock Lee, were considered to be on honeymoon, though the Hokage didn't want either jounin to leave the village. They had spent the past day and a half virtually cloistered away in their apartment; today was the first anyone had seen of them since their wedding two days ago, and frankly, it was far sooner than anyone had expected to see hide or hair of either of them.

"You didn't stock up beforehand?" Ayame teased. "Silly Sakura, never thinking far enough ahead."

"We stocked up!" Sakura retorted, sticking her tongue out at Ayame. "It's just that Lee's metabolism is so high, he eats like a horse!"

"Did you have to use _that_ example?" Lee appeared behind his wife, poking her in the ribs in an affectionate gesture of annoyance. It was relatively well known in Sakura's family that Lee had an irrational fear of horses, which was somewhat out of character for him, since he was generally fearless, as illustrated throughout his entire ninja career, in particular the first time he'd taken the Chuunin Selection Exams, when he'd fearlessly taken on Sabaku no Gaara in hand-to-hand combat. Anyone else in the competition, with a very select few exceptions, would have forfeited out of hand before the match began, because of Gaara's unstable demeanor at the time and his peerless control over sand, as well as his complete lack of concern for utterly crushing a human. Lee had suffered greatly at Gaara's hands, however, but he had also been the first person to ever break through Gaara's defenses, setting into motion a chain of events that had led to the Sand-nin's redemption in the end. The fact that Lee had no fear around someone as utterly dangerous as Gaara, and yet couldn't stand to be around a harmless domesticated animal like the horse, was what made it so bloody absurd that it was humorous.

"Of course. I have to needle you however I can. You don't get ruffled by much, except when it comes to horses!" Sakura grinned at him and elbowed him in the ribs. She glanced over his shoulder, out the door, at the butcher shop across the street, whose business flag was now raised. "Ah, the meat store is open. Why don't you go over there and get what we need there? If we split up, we can get it done faster. Then we'll be done by the time the morning rush starts."

The black-haired jounin grunted unintelligently as he nodded. "Good idea."

Sakura shook her head as he moved off across the street. "God knows I adore him, but ugh. I need some _space_!"

"Welcome to the world of marriage, my dear," Tsubaki said with a wide grin. "There's much more to marriage than being wrapped up in each other at all moments. I'm rather surprised you figured this out so soon."

"Well, I _have_ been living with him for almost a year already." Sakura began browsing the offered breads. "I'm just glad that Tsunade-sama gave Gai-sensei a tricky A-rank mission to keep him out of our hair for a while. I can only take so much of him at a time!"

"Er," Noboru huffed, rubbing the back of his neck, "I coulda sworn I saw him come in late last night. He was sent with Yumiya, I think, and I know she's pretty quick about accomplishing her A-ranks. And I thought it was just delivering a message to the Grass Country's daimyou."

"Augh!" Sakura groaned. "I swear he races through his missions these days, just to come bug us!"

Tsubaki shrugged as she pulled another loaf from the oven; "Honey, keep in mind that Gai-sensei is Lee-kun's father-figure. He's kind of all he has for family anymore. And unless I miss my guess, Gai doesn't have any family himself. Don't be too hard on him; despite that carefree exterior, I can't help but wonder if there isn't a lonely man hiding away."

"I rather doubt it," Ayame said with a laugh. "I get the feeling that Gai doesn't know anything but exuberance."

Sakura remained quiet, reflecting. A lot of people said the same thing about Lee, that he didn't know hardship or crushing defeat, that he didn't even bother to remember anything painful in the past, but she knew that wasn't true. She had seen for herself that Lee was every bit as tormented as many shinobi. It was not an easy life, being a ninja. Lee had been through his share of agonizing times. He just hid it well from most people.

"Geez, Sakura, don't go all introspective on me! You're scaring me!" Ayame waved a hand in front of Sakura's eyes. "Did I say something dumb?"

"You're always saying something dumb," Sakura teased. "No, I was just thinking."

"With a really serious look on your face. Which means you weren't thinking about _that_, so don't try to tell me you were."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "As if it's any of your business anyway!"

"If you don't quit dawdling, he's going to be finished long before you, Sakura," Noboru said, tapping his daughter on the shoulder.

"Right, right," Sakura said as she selected a few loaves and paid for them, heading on her way and waving goodbye to her family. Lee was waiting outside for her, a few bags of groceries already in his arms.

"Done?" he inquired, twitching his hirsute brows at the bakery shop to indicate what he meant.

"Yes. What else is left?"

"I got the meat and the produce," he said, hitching the bags in his arms. "We still need to go to the dairy shop, and we need eggs."

"One would think," a dry voice said from behind them, "that the two of you have been married for several years, not a matter of days."

Behind them stood two of Sakura's previous sensei, one of whom had also been a sensei to Lee: Hatake Kakashi and Umino Iruka. Iruka was still a chuunin who worked at the Academy, an occupation that he dearly loved and embraced enthusiastically. Kakashi was one of the highest-ranking jounin in the village, and had been Sakura's jounin sensei when she had been a genin. Until recently, he'd even led her team occasionally, though now that her teammate Uzumaki Naruto was more experienced as a jounin, Kakashi wasn't needed as much.

"Yo," Kakashi added lazily, raising a hand in greeting when they both turned to him. He had been, for close to two years, virtually useless to the Hokage due to an intangible instability he'd suffered stemming from his transplanted Sharingan left eye; he appeared to be cured after six months in Sunagakure with the Kazekage, Gaara, who had been developing various doujutsu therapy techniques. The message sent from the Kazekage had been for the Hokage to keep a close eye on Kakashi for a while, because Gaara wasn't convinced his therapeutic techniques had completely succeeded.

"Visiting the memorial?" Lee inquired, nodding in greeting to both of them.

"Of course," Iruka said with a bright smile. He and Kakashi had developed a rather unusual friendship because both of them kept up almost religious vigils with the large memorial stone over on the third training field. The cenotaph honored ninja who died in defense or service of the village. Kakashi's teammates Rin and Uchiha Obito were memorialized in the marble foundation, as well as far too many friends to count. Iruka's parents' names were inscribed on the cenotaph, as were the names of one of his teammates and his sensei, the latter of which a recent addition.

"You two are out and about early," Kakashi observed. "Get bored already?"

The tone of voice used, and the fact that it came from Kakashi, made the bawdy meaning crystal clear; the jounin was shameless, after all. Sakura turned red.

"Nice," Lee rolled his eyes. "This from the village pervert."

"Hey, that's not me. That's Jiraiya-sama. I don't go peeping."

"One might start questioning where your interests lie, Kakashi-sensei," Lee retorted, "if one were so inclined and wished to be rather rude about it. And prying."

"Touché," Kakashi chuckled. "I suppose I'm making an ass of myself."

"You are," Iruka said without missing a beat. "And they are trying to get their shopping done; we're delaying them, which isn't nice either."

"_'We'_ are doing no such thing," Kakashi retorted. "You're just standing there heckling me, you know."

Lee nudged Sakura and tipped his head in the direction of the dairy shop. The gesture was clear; he wanted to get going. She agreed; she wanted to get this over with and get back to their apartment. She still hadn't quite sated her wedding-induced lust, despite a day and a half of doing little else but consummating it.

"Well, we'll be seeing you," she said, raising her hand awkwardly in parting. "It's good to have you back, though, Kakashi-sensei."

"It's good to _be_ back," the Copy-nin said lazily, waving them on. "Lee, I don't know how you tolerated being in that redhead's presence so often. He unnerves even me."

"Once you get used to him," Lee replied, "Gaara-sama is not hard to understand at all. Good day, Kakashi-sensei, Iruka-sensei."

"Come to think of it," Sakura mused as they walked toward the dairy shop, "you never talk about your terms as an ambassador."

"There is not much to tell," Lee said with a shrug. "Nothing much happened. It was an office job, mostly. That is why they send chuunin to be ambassadors, not jounin. Because a jounin's combat experience is wasted as an ambassador."

"What was it like, living in Suna? And what kind of things did you do to put you so close to Gaara so much?"

She saw him bristle. "Why do you ask?"

"Because I'm curious, that's all! Why, was what you did over there so top secret you can't talk about it?"

"No, I never said anything like that." He looked irritated. "I wanted to be friends with Gaara-sama, is all. He did not seem to mind. He has no trouble telling someone to back off if he does not welcome their presence."

It took Sakura a moment to realize why he was so defensive; she'd forgotten about the ugly rumors that had circulated a few years ago, shortly before Lee's promotion to jounin, about Lee having an affair with the Kazekage. Several political enemies of both Gaara and Lee had deliberately misread their friendship as a homosexual relationship and had tried to exploit it. Gaara's response to the rumor had been cold indifference and refusal to even acknowledge such lies. But Lee, who was infinitely more sensitive than Suna's kage, had taken the humiliation to heart. Even now he didn't like it when people questioned him about Gaara, because it reminded him of the embarrassment of that whole fiasco.

She stopped, forcing him to stop as well. "I'm sorry, Lee. I forgot." She left it at that, letting him interpret it however he wanted.

He breathed a gusty sigh. "I am sorry as well, Sakura. I did not mean to lose my composure." He leaned over and pressed a kiss on her forehead. "I just... "

"I understand."

They resumed their course, and Sakura stopped into the dairy shop to pick up their necessities. The shopkeeper, a friend of Sakura's parents, enthusiastically congratulated her on her marriage to such a fine young man, and complimented the beautiful wedding. Sakura graciously accepted the congratulations and compliments, and hurriedly purchased the goods she'd come for. She was eager to get home. She bid farewell to the shopkeeper, and met up with Lee outside the shop.

"Let's get these home," she said brightly, shifting the groceries in her arms as she sidled up to her husband. "I'm still hungering for you, you know," she purred.

His sinuses flushed a bit as he looked away from her, though his mouth turned up in a sheepish smile. His prudence amused her to no end. She was normally somewhat reserved about private things, but she loved to tease him. Well, the tables usually turned once they were alone anyway. Lee, so polite and deferential in public, could be an absolute animal in the bedroom. She found his bedroom dominance absolutely irresistible, almost insatiably so.

He put an arm about her shoulders, pulling her close and speaking directly into her ear; "You're not the only one."

She just grinned at him. "Good. Then I don't have to waste energy seducing you."

"It doesn't take much anyway," he murmured throatily.

Lee was normally formal to a fault, and rarely spoke in contractions; but occasionally, especially when he was alone with Sakura, he relaxed his speech patterns. Just as he became much more aggressive in the bedroom, so did his speech patterns become much more casual, to the point of being forceful. While he used the more passive masculine form of "I" in everyday speech, when he was alone with Sakura, he used the same assertive term that most of her male friends used. This second nature of his was part of what she found so intriguing about him.

They turned a corner onto a street with other people on it, and Lee's old personality, the gentle one, rose back to the surface; she could tell by the expression on his face. _Oh well. I'll get him to myself soon enough._

They passed by the Nara residence, where Nara Shikamaru lived with his parents. Shikamaru was a classmate of Sakura's back in the academy, and Lee was familiar with Shikamaru as a commander. Shikamaru was not a morning person by nature, but he was standing outside his family home as Sakura and Lee walked past. He was holding a rack of deer antlers, and looking put out. When he saw the couple walking by, he raised his hand in greeting, but said nothing.

"Good morning, Shikamaru," Sakura replied.

"G'morning," the lazy jounin yawned. "Troublesome morning, at that."

That was all Shikamaru said, so Sakura and Lee decided to not press it. As they walked, she glanced at him. "So, you never answered my question. What kinds of things did you do in Suna? What was it like living there? How did you come be friends with Gaara?"

Again he bristled, but this time she saw him wrestle with that automatic reaction, slowly smoothing down his ruffled "feathers." He didn't like to be questioned about Gaara, but he understood that she was asking merely out of curiosity, not out of suspicion.

"I was one of the first ambassadors, you remember," he said by way of reply. "We did not really know what we were doing, and Gaara-sama was still pretty new at being Kazekage. I spent a lot of extra time near him and Kankurou-san, because I needed help getting things right. Gaara-sama was still adjusting to living without Shukaku, so he was a little clumsier than before. Not physically clumsy, but he tended to get confused easier. I know that Temari-san got annoyed with him a few times and said he was behaving like a stubborn brat. Baki-sama encouraged me to interact with Gaara-sama, though. You recall him, right? He was the siblings' jounin mentor, and is considered to be Kazekage-sama's most trusted advisor. He seemed to understand that I was not afraid of Gaara-sama, and he encouraged me to be friendly toward him."

"That's what I don't get--why did you bother?"

"I wanted to be friends with him, and he seemed to not mind. He and I are a lot more alike than perhaps you realize. I was a long way from home, homesick, and craving friendship. And Gaara-sama is still human, however much he would have preferred us to think otherwise. Most of the Suna-nin were in awe of him, so he really did not have any friends, besides his siblings. He seemed receptive to my overtures. I rather think he was lonelier than he cared to admit."

"I know I've brought this up before, but it bears repeating: he very nearly killed you. Twice, if Shikamaru and Naruto are to be believed."

"He also saved my life, if you recall. It was because of him that I came back from that failed retrieval of Sasuke-kun with largely superficial injuries; a favor I never really got to return. Even when he was later kidnapped by Akatsuki, the part I played in his rescue was proportionately small. And besides, he has changed, a lot, since Naruto-kun forced him to open his eyes. He is actually a very caring person, a fact most people dismiss or disregard."

"I do rather find that hard to believe myself."

"Do you?" He raised an eyebrow at her. "Remember that he _lives _for Sunagakure. He does not even like coming to Konoha, because he does not like to leave Suna. He is a very caring individual; he just cares about different things than you might expect."

"Well, I suppose that makes sense, but..."

Lee snorted good-naturedly. "He has little tolerance for people. Which you cannot blame him for, given how he was treated most of his life. In any case, he seemed receptive to my offers of friendship. I am pretty sure he craved it more than he wanted to admit. And he allowed me to spar with him, which was what he did in his spare time."

"He _spars_ in his spare time?"

"Yes."

"Who with?"

"Usually Baki-sama or Kankurou-san. Temari-san will spar with him when she is available, but she travels a lot."

"Does he do anything else?"

"He does not have that much spare time, Sakura," Lee chuckled. "He _is_ the Kazekage, and he does not have someone like Shizune-san to help alleviate his workload. But yes, he does a lot of sparring, particular back then. He was still relearning his sand control at the time."

"Damn, he _is_ a lot like you then."

"Do not misunderstand me, Sakura; he brims with natural genius and ability. In that respect, he and I are nothing alike. He did not have to work hard at all originally to become as good as he is. But losing Shukaku meant that he lost some control over his sand; he had to relearn how to fight with it. I like to think that he allowed me to spar with him because he recognized that I was the first to break through his original barriers."

"Didn't it bother you, that he might lose control of his sand?"

"Lose control of the sand?" Lee hesitated momentarily in his stride, before resuming. "I have never seen him _lose control_ of it. But even if he had, what is the nature of sand? To lay on the ground motionlessly. There would have been nothing to fear if he had lost control of the sand. He does not have Shukaku to override his intentions. No, he was learning how to expand his control over the sand, to use it for other purposes besides just a shield or a crushing weapon."

By this time, they had arrived home, but Sakura wasn't about to interrupt Lee's monologue. He didn't talk like this very often, about the past. She still couldn't get much out of him about his time living with his uncle, or what had happened to his uncle. She assumed the uncle was either deceased or had disinherited Lee, since the man had not even been contacted in regards to their wedding.

As Lee held the front door open for her, he shifted gears in his recollection. "It was boring in Suna, really. As I said, the ambassador position is a desk job, and you know that I am not much cut out for that kind of job. There was little to do. There is a much greater delineation between the shinobi and the regular people. They just do not intermingle in Suna like they do here in Konoha. And they are suspicious of outsiders. Perhaps that is why I sought Gaara-sama out; he never showed any hostility toward me."

"I guess it's just as well Tsunade-sama never really gave me the opportunity to be an ambassador," Sakura said as she started putting groceries away. "But if it was so boring, why did you volunteer to do so many terms of it? The ambassador terms are only six months, right? And you did, what, six? Seven?"

"Six. I liked being around Gaara-sama. He is honest and, once you get used to him, easy to work with. So long as you do not do anything to anger him, he is generally pliable, if you have gained his respect. If you have not gained his respect, he tends to be difficult. He is a good friend, Sakura. He and Naruto-kun are very much alike in that way. Once he deems you as a friend, he will do anything for you. And he is a very good sparring partner. I feel that my taijutsu got better sparring with him than it did with Gai-sensei by that point in my career, because I know most of Gai-sensei's tricks. Kankurou-san also sparred with me. Now _he_ is unpredictable." Lee assisted her with the groceries. "He is like what Gai-sensei calls a berserker. You cannot tell what he will do next. Whereas Gaara-sama never moves needlessly, Kankurou-san sometimes moves erratically just to fake you out. I would much rather face Gaara-sama in a fight than Kankurou-san. Kankurou-san deliberately ignores the rules of engagement."

Sakura giggled. "Who'd've thought Gaara would be more traditional than his brother?"

"Well, from what I understand, Kankurou-san is one of the best puppeteers in the history of the village, and that is how puppeteers fight. They fight best at a distance, so when facing a close-range opponent, they must put some distance between themselves and their opponents, however possible. And Kankurou-san has excellent taijutsu skills. Between the two of them, I would say that Kankurou-san is better at that then Gaara-sama."

_Now he's digressing_, Sakura thought to herself. _Well, I probably shouldn't interrupt, he's talking a lot more about Gaara than he usually does._ Sakura was not completely convinced that there had not been something between Lee and Gaara at one point. She did believe that Lee was honest with her about his own feelings, but she wasn't sure he could speak for Gaara, though clearly if there had been any romantic tension, it had fizzled amicably. After all, if Gaara disliked leaving Suna so much, why had he made the trek to Konoha just to attend Lee's wedding? Especially with the threat of war with Kirigakure becoming increasingly dire. Of course, Gaara and his siblings had only stayed long enough for the ceremony; they had departed for home very shortly after the ceremony concluded, but their presence had been an honor in and of itself. It was one hell of a long journey for them to only stay a few hours.

Why would Gaara do that, for someone who was just a friend?

On the other hand, how many friends did the Kazekage really have?

She realized that her thoughts had taken over her attention when she realized Lee had stopped talking and was looking at her questioningly.

"Sakura, you look like something is bothering you."

"I'm sorry," she said. "I just... why did Gaara take time out of his schedules to come to our wedding? That's kind of bothered me. You say he hates to leave Suna; that's certainly one hell of a journey, and they were only here long enough to offer their congratulations after the ceremony, before they left again."

"I do not know. You would have to ask him. I was as surprised as you to see him. Especially considering they are on the verge of full war with Kirigakure, it seemed strange to me; but I for one was not about to question him. It is not wise to question Gaara-sama too much."

"What happens if you do?" Sakura felt her apprehension creep into her voice.

"He does not get violent, if that is what you were fearing," he chuckled. "No, if you piss off Gaara-sama, he ignores you completely, out of spite. Gaara-sama is not a violent person by nature."

"Could've fooled me," she muttered acridly, her hand reaching out and gripping his left arm meaningfully.

"That was Shukaku's anger, Sakura," Lee replied. "You have seen what the Kyuubi does to Naruto-kun when it gets its tails in a knot. Shukaku was no different, except for the fact that it was much more active in Gaara-sama's life."

Sakura put the last of the perishables in the refrigerator, and turned to him. "I don't believe that that was entirely Shukaku. Ask Naruto sometime what it's like having a bijuu inside. They're not that invasive."

"Shukaku was, Sakura. Why do you think he never slept?" It was at that point, apparently, that Lee realized how long he'd been talking about Gaara, because his eyes widened and he waved a hand in a frantic dismissing gesture. "Enough of that." His personality shifted slightly, as evidenced by the aggressive spin on his next words. "I would rather not talk at all." He gripped her shoulders firmly. The thrum of his voice indicated his intentions, and she melted.

"I'm all for that," she said breathlessly. "Lead the way, my green knight."

* * *

Several hours later, they were relaxing in their bed, taking a break in between bouts of frantic lust. One could almost make an argument that her attraction to him was purely sexual, but it wouldn't be a very good argument, despite the fact that that was about all she did with him lately. (She irritably reminded herself that newlyweds could be excused for having sex frequently.)

She traced the bizarre pattern of a scar on his chest, her head nestled against his shoulder and his arm around her shoulders. His breathing was returning to normal as they lay there, soaking up each other's presence. Sakura was just about to make a bawdy comment when she felt him tense up beneath her.

"What's the matter?"

"That bird," he said in reply, sitting bolt upright, startling her. "I recognize it." He jumped out of bed, not even the remotest bit mindful that he was stark naked. He threw open the nearby window and leaned out. She didn't even get a chance to marvel at his sculpted figure and taut muscles.

"We need to go, Sakura," he said, turning around and grabbing up his clothes from the floor. "That is the red-alert bird, calling all jounin to the administrative building. Something has happened."

"Lee, _we're on honeymoon_! We're on vacation, in case you weren't aware of that!" Sakura said in frustration. "Nothing short of a dire emergency should be needed of us."

"This _is_ an emergency, Sakura," he retorted. "One of the highest order, short of an actual invasion."

"But I'm not even a full jounin, why do they want me?"

"Because you are my partner, perhaps, and because you and I work with Naruto-kun, who will likely be dispatched." He pulled on his green uniform as she grudgingly crawled out of the bed and started to put on her uniform.

"It's not like Naruto can't work with anyone else, you know. He can work with just about anyone. He has some trouble with ANBU just because of their secretive nature, but he can still work with them."

The argument was forestalled with a pounding on their front door, done so loud that they could hear it even through their closed bedroom door. "Sakura! Lee!" It was Shikamaru, bellowing at the top of his lungs. "You're needed immediately at the admin building!"

Lee didn't bother to give Sakura a "see-I-told-you-so" look, which she was rather grateful for. That was yet another thing she loved about him. He didn't boast or crow or rub it in when he was right. He wasn't above a simple "See, I was right" occasionally, but other than that, he usually just kept moving. He was mostly dressed -- at least enough to go out in public -- by the time Shikamaru had arrived, so he went out and answered the door. "What is the matter?"

"An emergency bird came in from Sunagakure. Something catastrophic has happened. Hokage-sama needs both of you as well. She said that Sakura is requested in the message. I'll wait for you both at the street, so please hurry."

"Bloody hell," Sakura cursed softly as she tied her hair up with her hitai-ate. "What on earth could be wrong?"

"I am worried as well," Lee replied as he pulled his jounin vest on and zipped it up. "Gaara-sama would not be calling for help unless something really, really terrible has happened, something he cannot deal with."

"Gaara shouldn't even be back yet," she realized with a start as she packed her utility gloves into her hip pouch and spun a pair of kunai into their holster at her thigh. "I mean, he should only be about halfway between Konoha and Suna by now, right?"

"Gaara-sama is extremely fast, Sakura," was all he said. "We need to go."

"Gaara may be fast, but he's nothing compared to you," Sakura pressed as they stepped out of the apartment and locked it up. "The only person faster than you is Gai-sensei, right?"

"In sheer physical bursts of speed, yes, but Gaara-sama can maintain his speed for an inhuman length of time. Given enough fuel, I imagine he could travel from here to Suna in a single day. That is part of his genius."

"Fuel?" she asked as they joined up with Shikamaru, who was physically showing signs of distress, an unusual thing for him. Whatever it was that had happened, it was unsettling even the most laid-back jounin in the village. That couldn't be a good sign.

"Chakra boosts," Lee replied. He had noticed Shikamaru's agitation as well, and his look of concern grew more and more grave. "You know, like soldier pills."

"Let's go," Shikamaru said gruffly.

* * *

As they arrived in the Hokage office of the administrative building, Sakura knew something serious was happening. All the jounin in the village were there, crammed in the office that normally seemed roomy. But that wasn't what spooked her the most. What got to her about the seriousness of this situation was how her longtime teammate and best friend, Uzumaki Naruto, greeted her with a huge, tearful hug, squeezing her so tightly that she was left gasping for air.

"I'm so sorry, Sakura-chan," he murmured in her ear. "I didn't want to interrupt your honeymoon, but Gaara's requesting you specifically, and it sounds like it's a horrible mess."

"It must be," Lee said gravely, "if Gaara-sama is requesting help from Konoha. Considering how proud he is of Sunagakure, things must be very much out of hand for him to be asking us for help."

"You're sure it's from Gaara?" Sakura asked. "He shouldn't be home yet."

"It's his handwriting; I recognize it." Naruto confirmed. Having been the Hokage's acknowledged successor, he had never been an ambassador in Sunagakure, but he had handled all the correspondence between the Konoha and Suna ambassadors on this side of the alliance. If anyone besides Lee -- who had worked in Suna for at least six ambassador terms and had been very close to the Kazekage during those terms -- could recognize Gaara's handwriting at a glance, it was Naruto. "I'm not sure how he did it, got home so fast, but the letter is unmistakably his handwriting. It's not even in code. The fact that such an important message didn't pass through encoding is even scarier."

"Naruto!" The Hokage said sharply. "Back over here by me."

"Sorry, Sakura-chan, Geji-mayu," he said apologetically to both of them, before body-flickering his way back to the desk where Tsunade, the Godaime Hokage, sat, looking more serious than even Sakura was used to seeing.

Once everyone was settled, though few were seated due to the heightened alarm in the atmosphere (Sakura noted with detached amusement that Shikamaru's father, Nara Shikaku, was one of the few who _was_ seated. He'd been a jounin for twenty or thirty years now. He'd seen pretty much everything; very little actually rattled him.) Tsunade cleared her throat.

"I presume you all know the premise of why you've been called here, so I'll cut to the chase: this morning, just after dawn, a bird came in from Sunagakure, bearing an emergency message from the Kazekage. I must admit that I was skeptical at first, as I can see many of you are as well, but this is without a doubt his handwriting and his seal. He also used his fastest bird to send this to us. The message is not pleasant. What it says is, frankly, frightening." She unrolled the scroll and proceeded to read:

_"To Godaime Hokage. From Godaime Kazekage. It is with a very heavy heart that I must beg you for assistance. During my brief absence, one of the enemy villages infiltrated my village and set loose either a plague or a rampant poison. Half the village is dead -- "_ This garnered an audible gasp from the jounin in the room, even from the hardened warriors; everyone knew that Gaara didn't exaggerate, so if he said that half the village was dead, that meant that half his total population was presumed dead. _" -- and the other half is suffering. My entire medical staff has been completely wiped out. Worse, none of us can figure out what has caused this sudden epidemic or genocide. Weakened in numbers as we are, and with very few able-bodied soldiers, we are defenseless._

_"I find myself forced to call to you for help, though I must warn you that this attack reeks of the Mizukage's doing, though I have no proof and cannot say this on record. Therefore, I must warn you to arm yourself against an attack as well. But with half of my population dead, and the other half dying or suffering, I must beg of you to send as many skilled healers as you can spare, and a squad or two of fighters to help me defend my village; I fully anticipate a direct attack sooner or later. I also request that Haruno Sakura be among the healers sent, because she has experience with our medicinal plant supply._

_"I am sorry to make this request of you, but I hope you can understand my urgency. I can protect the village from attacks from without, but attacks from within are a little beyond my capabilities, and many of my advisors and seconds- and thirds-in-command are dead. I will hold off any outside attacks as long as I can, but I can only do so much. I anxiously await your response. Yours, Godaime Kazekage, Suna no Gaara."_

"Suna?" Lee said into the stunned silenced. "He called himself _Suna_ no Gaara?"

"He did. This says Suna, not Sabaku." Tsunade snapped the scroll shut.

"The only time I've ever seen Gaara do that was immediately after the whole Akatsuki incident," Naruto said. "He sent a formal message to Hokage-sama thanking her for helping. I remember thinking it was a mistake at first. I think it's Gaara's way of speaking for the entire village using his own name, rather than his title."

Sakura's blood chilled slightly. Things had to be dire for Naruto to refer to Tsunade as "Hokage-sama" like that. He almost always, even in formal situations, called her "Obaachan."

"Hey, wait a minute," another jounin said. "What about the ambassador in Suna? What happened to him?"

"The message clearly says nothing about him," Tsunade said gravely, "so we must assume the worst."

Sakura felt like someone had dropped an ice-brick on her. No wonder Naruto was so upset! The current ambassador in Suna was one of his first friends, a young chuunin named Konohamaru, a grandson of the Sandaime Hokage. Konohamaru, like Naruto, aspired to be Hokage someday, and was widely regarded as the unofficial future Nanadaime Hokage. Naruto was like a big brother to Konohamaru, and had been, along with Iruka-sensei, one of the first people to acknowledge Naruto's talent and drive, and had been one of Naruto's closest friends for the past ten years or more now. The possibility that Konohamaru was dead had to be a bitter pill for Naruto to swallow.

Tsunade cleared her throat again. "This is clearly not something we can ignore, but I have to take into consideration that this message warns outright in more than one instance that we could very well be the next target."

"You're absolutely certain this actually came from Kazekage-sama?" Another jounin questioned. "He was here in Konoha two days ago; it is a three-day journey from here to Suna. He shouldn't be in Suna already."

"I don't know how he did it," Tsunade said, "but I do believe this message is indeed from him. He told me that he and his siblings managed to cover the distance in two days coming here, and implied that he had reasons for coming all the way here on such short notice." Tsunade laced her fingers and looked fixedly across the room at one jounin in particular. "Akimichi Chouza. I understand your clan has been developing a new kind of soldier pill that has fewer side effects and bolsters chakra longer."

"This is correct, Hokage-sama," the large jounin replied benignly, "and we have not hidden any of this information from you, if you recall."

"I don't normally pry into business matters," Tsunade replied, "but I need to know: did anyone from Sunagakure purchase any of those new soldier pills recently?"

"Yes," Chouza said, gaining the attention of everyone in the room. "Kazekage-sama's brother, Kankurou, purchased a few when they were in Konoha the other day. He did not say what they plan to use them for, only that he was authorized by Kazekage-sama to pay whatever price requested."

"In your informed opinion, do you believe the Kazekage used those soldier pills to return to Suna in less than half the time it normally takes?"

"It is indeed probable, Hokage-sama," Chouza scratched his head, "but I warned Kankurou that the side-effects are quite debilitating, and that the pills should only be used in emergencies. The side-effects are not as dire as some, but they tend to leave the user drained almost completely of chakra for a day or more, depending on how much chakra was used during the pill's effects. There is also a risk of severe dehydration, because the pills convert body fluids into chakra when natural chakra runs out. If anyone tried to use the pills to cut the travel time down that much, they would likely be bedridden with fatigue by the time the pills wear off, as well as weak from dehydration, and thus would be of little use as fighters or defenders."

"On the other hand," his teammate Yamanaka Inoichi said, "given Kazekage-sama's enormous store of chakra, he might have been able to pull it off without ending up dehydrated, but he'd likely be very low on chakra by the time he got to Suna. Either way, he wouldn't be very well equipped to handle an attack."

Tsunade pondered this, her eyes sweeping the room. "Well, the mystery of how he got home to Suna is secondary in importance to the fact that our allied village is in dire need of help. I have given this some thought, and before I make any announcements, I would like to know if there are any present who will not be able, should you be assigned, to make the journey to Suna to heal or defend as needed."

Silence befell the room, and extended as the Hokage combed her gaze from one corner of the room to the other, searching for any uncertainty. Finally, one jounin responded; "I'm game to do it, if needed, but I'm exhausted from my last mission, so I don't know how effective I'd be."

Sakura recognized, by the country drawl, the voice as belonging to Narita Yumiya, a genjutsu jounin and former member of ANBU. Sakura was familiar with the kunoichi because Yumiya had some basic healing training and had at one point been something of a sempai to Sakura. Not only that, but for the past eight months or so, Yumiya roomed with her occasional teammate, Maito Gai, who was Lee's sensei and father-figure. Yumiya apparently had financial issues that stemmed from an old gambling addiction she had never quite managed to kick.

She wasn't kidding, either, when she said she was exhausted. The woman looked like she'd been run over by a freight cart. She was actually leaning on Gai, as though he were the only thing holding her up. Even Gai looked really tired, which was unusual, because he was normally able to hide his fatigue very well.

Lee nudged her, focusing her attention on him. His gaze was locked firmly on the Hokage, who was staring intently at them.

"Sakura, are you comfortable with this?" She asked. "He specifically requested you; do you think you can handle a potential epidemic?"

"I can try," Sakura said honestly. "I'm not looking forward to it, but I can't exactly turn away either, not if I can help them, when they need my help."

"Good." Tsunade nodded definitively. "I will be sending three teams immediately. I also am assembling a back-up team, to be dispatched pending any additional information. The three initial teams will depart from Konoha as soon as possible, but will each travel separately. We have to assume that this is a war zone you will be venturing into, so it is best to travel in small groups, and each team will be comprised of healers and fighters both. Once you reach Suna, you will reassemble as needed, according to the Kazekage's will and needs. I'm sending teams that are familiar with each other and familiar with the territory. The rest of you jounin will be assigned to various posts within Konoha to prevent a similar attack on us."

She stood up and walked around to stand in front of the desk. After a long pause in which she again looked at each of her jounin, searching for uncertainty or any other emotion that could impair a mission, she spoke. "Two of the three teams will have chuunin, for reasons I will state as I name them. This cannot be helped, unfortunately, though I am assigning each team an experienced team leader that I believe can best utilize each member.

"Team number one will be Team Naruto. This is the primary team, consisting of the best fighters and healer I can send. Team Naruto will be headed by Uzumaki Naruto, and will contain Haruno Sakura, Rock Lee and Hyuuga Neji.

"Team number two will be the tactics team. This team should be best equipped to adapt to Suna's needs. This team is Team Shikamaru, captained by Nara Shikamaru, comprising Akimichi Chouji, Hyuuga Hanabi and Yamanaka Ino. I am aware that Ino and Hanabi are still chuunin, but both are skilled healers, and the entire team functions particularly well under Shikamaru's command. If any chuunin can succeed in an elevated S-rank like this, I believe this team will. And I believe that Hanabi's Byakugan will prove essential.

"Team number three is the support and communications team. My assistant Shizune will captain Team Shizune -- " That got everyone's attention; Tsunade almost never sent her loyal assistant on dangerous missions. " -- which will consist of Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata and Inuzuka Kiba. In particular," she paused a moment, fixing her gaze on Shino and his father Shibi, "I expect regular reports via your communications bugs, Shino. Shibi will be stationed near the administrative building for this reason. I need to know what's going on, so that I can dispatch reinforcements if necessary."

Shino nodded in acceptance of this.

Tsunade leaned against her desk. "I have specifically organized the teams so that each team has the use of the Byakugan. As I said earlier, we have to assume that the Kaze no Kuni is a war zone. Therefore, every possible advantage for scouting is necessary if the teams are to arrive in Suna in a timely manner. Due to the harmful nature of the side effects, I forbid any of you from attempting to use soldier pills to increase travel speed. You're needed as back-up and support; arriving in Suna on the brink of collapse from exhaustion is not only not advisable, it is counterproductive."

After another pause, she sighed. "The fourth team, the back-up fighter team, will not be dispatched immediately, though I imagine I will have to dispatch it sooner or later, so each member should be ready to leave at any time. This team, if dispatched, should serve mostly to support Team Naruto. This fourth team will be Team Yamato, and will comprise Hatake Kakashi, Maito Gai and Narita Yumiya.

"My reasoning for choosing those four is thus: Kakashi knows Sunagakure better than anyone in this room, with one possible exception; Yamato will likely be needed if things get really out of hand for Naruto; Gai is best utilized as back-up in this manner, and he has experience with the area surrounding Sunagakure; and Yumiya has a lot of experience with poisons, so she can serve with the healers if necessary." Here the Hokage paused. "However, Yumiya, I know that you are exhausted; I can see from here that you're in rough shape. If you think you will be unable to recover in time -- "

Yumiya waved her hand irritably. "I just need a good meal and about twelve hours' sleep. I'm not injured, just extremely low on chakra. Give me half a day and I'll be good as new."

"Good. I don't anticipate to have to dispatch you for at least three days, if not more; however, there is the possibility of further information arriving before then, so I'll expect you four to be ready to leave at a moment's notice." Tsunade rubbed her forehead wearily. "Teams Naruto, Shikamaru and Shizune should depart as soon as possible -- I expect each team to be gone from here within the hour. This is an elevated S-rank mission, so time is of the essence. As for the rest of you," she added, glancing around, "I expect you all to be in the missions room an hour from now. I need time to figure out how to assign you all. _Dismissed!_"

Sakura blinked rapidly in slow comprehension. An S-rank. The last thing in the world she wanted was for Lee to be put on an S-rank like this, even if she was there with him. She didn't completely trust his abilities, not with the residual injuries he carried. Several of the injuries he still had troubles with had been incurred on an S-rank dealing with Kirigakure and its crazy Mizukage. As much as she disliked being in Gai's presence very often, she acutely wished he were assigned to their team, because if anyone could restrain Lee and prevent him from hurting himself, it was Gai.

It was a small consolation that for his first S-rank in nearly two years Lee would be accompanied by Sakura and Naruto, as well as Neji, who knew Lee better than just about anyone in their age group.

Naruto approached Sakura as the other jounin filed out of the room. "Like I said, Sakura-chan, I'm sorry about this. I wish that this didn't interrupt your honeymoon, but..."

"It could not be avoided," Lee said pragmatically. "We are shinobi; our first priority is our village. And I cannot help but feel somewhat guilty that this has happened; I wonder if it would have happened if Gaara-sama had not left Suna."

Naruto shrugged. "I don't think you should blame yourself, Geji-mayu. After all, you weren't expecting to see him, were you? None of us expected him to show up for your wedding. Even Kakashi-sensei said he was surprised, because Gaara had made no comments or anything indicating that he planned to attend."

Lee thumped Naruto affectionately; "I do not recall blaming myself. In any case, we should be getting ready to leave."

Naruto heaved a sigh; "I just hope that Konohamaru is okay. I'd like to think that Gaara would inform us if the ambassador was among the casualties, but we don't know the circumstances."

"We should get going," Neji said matter-of-factly. "We've got a long trip ahead of us; we'll need a lot of supplies and weapons, if we're going into a war-zone."

Lee crossed his arms and looked at his long-time teammate defiantly. "Do you really think we do not know this, Neji?"

"I'm just trying to get you three idiots to _get moving_! You heard Hokage-sama -- time is of the essence."

"Yeah." Naruto shook his head abruptly, as though shaking unpleasant thoughts from his mind; "We'll meet at the front gate."

Neji abruptly disappeared, using the body-flicker technique to do so. Naruto followed suit.

"Sakura, before you go, come here a moment," Tsunade called. Sakura obeyed without even thinking about it. Tsunade handed her three sturdy books from the depths of her desk drawers. "I want you to take these with you. Between the three of them, you should be able to handle any disease or poison Kirigakure can concoct. While I have complete faith in your abilities, my experience with Kirigakure is that their poisons and viruses are extremely complex and difficult to diagnose, and you will be a long distance away from any help I can give you. I don't think you'll need them, but in case you do, these books have information on all known poisons and cultured viruses. The fact that we're dealing with Kirigakure is also why I'm sending Shizune; she's as good at poison-decoction as you or me, and she has made a point of studying Kirigakure poisons over the years. If I thought I could, I would go with you as well. There is something about the way that letter is worded that makes me think Gaara is deliberately not telling me something, something important and unpleasant that he probably assumes I wouldn't be interested in. So be prepared for the worst. If you think you can't handle it, have Shino let me know, and I'll see if I can shanghai Jiraiya into standing in my place here while I come to help you."

"I don't think that'll be necessary, shishou," Sakura said. "I mean, if you're sending Shizune-san along too, between the two of us, I imagine we can handle it, if it can be handled at all."

"I'm just concerned about the scale of suffering, Sakura. Gaara said that half the village is already dead, and the other half is stricken. That is a _ lot_ of people. Just try to imagine having to treat half of Konohagakure in a short period of time; it's not pretty. No matter how good you are, and no matter how much Naruto can boost your chakra, you can only do so much. Try not to overdo it. If you need my help, just call for me."

"I understand, shishou."

"Good girl. I'm sorry about this, I know I gave you two the week off, but this is an emergency."

"It couldn't be helped. Like Lee says, we're shinobi. Our first priority is our village."

"Speaking of him," the Hokage raised an eyebrow, "I would have sent Gai with you, if it weren't for the fact that I think you'll need Neji's Byakugan more, and the fact that Gai is physically exhausted from his last mission. I'm going to have to rely on you to keep Lee in one piece, so keep your eye on that thick-browed runt; he's stubborn and he has no idea how fragile he really is. I've instructed Naruto to keep his eye on Lee as well, to not let him try opening any Gates. If necessary, he has my permission to use force; I've told him that I'd rather see that green-clothed moron knocked out by a blow to the head from a teammate than mutilated by a mistimed Gate opening."

"Well, that's easier said than done, shishou, but I have a rather vested interest in keeping him intact."

Tsunade's face molded into a wicked smile; "I suppose you would, wouldn't you?"

Sakura blinked, realizing that the Hokage had just made a bawdy comment, but not quite sure what triggered it. "Er, say what?"

The Hokage laughed. "Sorry, my dear, it was just your choice of words that amused me. Perhaps you aren't aware of the term; 'Intact' is a term used to describe an animal that has not been gelded or neutered."

Sakura felt her face grow hot with embarrassment. "Shishou!"

"Go on, Sakura, you're wasting time now. I promise you, you will be compensated for this interruption of your honeymoon, but you need to get going!"

* * *

**Coming soon: "Part Two: To Suna" (tentative title) wherein the three teams travel to Sunagakure (big surprise!) (Okay, so I haven't figured out what else I'm going to do in it. Oh well.)**

* * *

**A word about pronouns:**  
Rock Lee usually uses "boku" to refer to himself. While masculine, it is considerably less aggressive and assertive than what Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi tend to use, which is "ore." What I'm referring to above when I talk about Lee's speech patterns changing is that he switches in private from using "boku" to using "ore" -- which is of course just speculation, since we never actually see him doing that. But that's what I'm talking about. 


	3. Part Two: To Suna

****

**Author's Note**: As stated in the prologue and previous chapter, this is set way out from the start of the series. Therefore, it's probably somewhat AU. Refer to the Author's Note in the previous chapter for more details; these identical Author Notes are kind of redundant at this point.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own any part of "Naruto" or its characters. It all belongs to the incomparable Masashi Kishimoto-sensei. I'm just playing in the sandbox of this amazing world.

**Warning**: Coarse language. Yumiya has a very foul mouth at all times. Expect F-bombs and other profanity or expletives.

* * *

_"The flower which blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all." --proverb from "Mulan"_

* * *

**"The Flower in Adversity"  
Part Two: To Suna**

Naruto was the first member of his team to arrive at the front gates. Not a surprise, he figured, since Neji had a fiancée to say goodbye to, and Sakura had family to inform. However, he noticed that the back-up team -- Team Yamato -- was there as well. Yumiya was teasing Kakashi about something, Gai looked like he was preoccupied, and Yamato looked amused.

"You crack me up, Kakashi-sempai," Yumiya grinned. "I never know what the fuck you're gonna do next! I really thought you were going to be annoyed or argue the point. I mean, he's your kohai and all!"

"Hey, are you trying to undermine my authority, Yumiya-kohai?" Yamato said benignly.

"Naw," the kunoichi drawled, leaning against the gate post and munching hungrily on a large rice ball, "I just find it all a riot. I'm not used to Kakashi-sempai having to answer to anyone but the Hokage. He's been a ninja longer than any of us. That just blows my mind the fuck and back, that he has to answer to you, Tenzou-sempai."

"Yamato," the former ANBU captain corrected. "Please use the correct name. You know how these codenames work, after all."

"Bah, shit, whatever. Sorry, sempai."

"You know, Yumi, you sure don't talk like a lady," Gai retorted good-naturedly. "You could try to tone it down in public."

Yumiya made a rude comment under her breath and punched her roommate in the shoulder. "You know I'm not a 'lady' at all. I may look like one, but I ain't. Why should I give a fuck what others think of the way I talk when I'm not on a mission?"

Gai shook his head; this was an argument no one could win with her. She wasn't very polished, for all that she looked like a very pretty, refined kunoichi. She was a battle-hardened jounin with a penchant toward cheap thrills.

"The only thing funnier than Yamato-sempai commanding Kakashi-sempai would be _me_ commanding him."

"Humph," Kakashi snorted. "You wonder why I didn't argue the point? Maybe because I know it's useless to argue with Hokage-sama. Plus, she put a lot of thought into organizing us. Besides, I haven't been much of a jounin leader in a long time, you know. Lately I've been under the command of runts almost half my age; I'll remind you that I spent the past six months in the company of that crazy redhead in the Sand village. Don't get me wrong, I have great respect for him -- I watched him single-handedly fend off an attack by Kirigakure with that giant sand shield of his -- and I know that Naruto and Lee both think very, very highly of him, but he frankly weirds me out. There's just something not quite human about him, even though you could argue he's now more human than Naruto since that bijuu was yanked out of him."

"Speaking of your student," Gai said with a grin, "he's eavesdropping, and apparently honestly thinks we haven't noticed."

"I did _not_ think you hadn't noticed!" Naruto retorted, even as Yamato raised a hand to him in a greeting gesture. "I just didn't want to interrupt. I don't like to be on the receiving end of Yumiya-oneechan's punches, you know."

Yumiya laughed outright. "Damn, Gai, why aren't your students as smart as Kakashi's? That Hyuuga kid is stubborn as a donkey, Tenten is a little dull around the edges in tactics, and your little clone is... kind of like his namesake. Dumb as a rock at times."

"Lee can't be that dumb, if you've never been able to land a hit on him," Neji said from behind her. "Even I can't boast that. Even if I am as stubborn as a donkey."

Yumiya shrugged. "In order to 'land a hit' on him, I'd need to actually fight him. I never spar with him. I'm under serious threat from Shizune if I spar with him and he gets hurt."

Gai moved over to Neji, motioning him aside. Amusingly, he pulled Neji closer to where Naruto stood waiting for the rest of his team. This put them essentially within earshot for Naruto, though he wondered if this was an accident or intentional. Gai didn't usually make dumb mistakes. He was a clown who was outrageously self-confident, but he didn't make stupid mistakes; he was a hell of a lot cleverer than most people gave him credit for, a fact Naruto himself had been slow to realize until he'd worked with the older jounin on several S-ranks.

Gai handed Neji something. "Here. I'm giving this to you because you know Lee better than any of your teammates, and this might be necessary."

"What the hell?" Neji stared at the object -- Naruto couldn't see whatever it was because of how Gai was standing, but whatever it was, it wasn't very large. "Gai-sensei, are you serious? You and I both know what happens when -- "

"Just shut up and let me finish," Gai interrupted. "The last time he fought against Mist-nin, he nearly died, because he mistimed those Gates. He still doesn't have full control over them, and unfortunately, he hasn't mastered Asa Kujaku, but that won't stop him from trying to use it if he thinks the situation warrants it."

"And this will help how? By making him a berserker?"

"He won't be able to control the chakra flow enough to open any Gates, so the risk is lesser."

"The internal risk, maybe, but then he'll get reckless and unpredictable, not to mention uncontrollable, until it wears off."

"This is only to be used as a last resort. If you see him trying to open any Gates -- basically, once he starts with the Third one, you'll know -- knock him out of it with your jyuukan. Tsunade-sama is very concerned that there's still some residual damage to one of the higher Gates; if he tries to open it, who knows what will happen?"

Neji shook his head slowly in disbelief. "I can't believe you're doing this. And why are you giving this to _me_?"

"Because you know him a lot better than Naruto, and I can guarantee you that Sakura won't accept this alternative. And I don't want him doing this unless there's no other choice. I said this is a last resort, and I mean that. I don't trust him to know the difference yet. Talented as he is, he's narrow-minded and he loses sight of the scope of battle in a fight. You've got the soundest judgment in a fight; I trust you to be able to make the right call to use it if there's no other choice and only then."

Neji sighed in resignation; "I hope it doesn't come to this. The last time I saw him like that, it scared the hell out of me. I really thought he was going to get us all killed."

"I don't think it will, but if things get to that point, I'd rather you do that than let him try something disastrous with the Gates. If he's drunk, he can't control the chakra flow and won't be able to open any of them."

Naruto had developed his own suspicions as to what the object under discussion was, and that last comment from Gai confirmed it. _I've heard about Geji-mayu's fighting style when he has any alcohol. They say he becomes completely unpredictable and ridiculously aggressive. Things must really be dangerous if Gai-sensei thinks it's safer to unleash _that_ on the enemy than whatever that attack is that he's been trying to teach Geji-mayu for the past six months._

"If we have to resort to this, you do realize that Sakura will skin me alive for it, right?" Neji crossed his arms stubbornly. "Not very nice of you to throw me to that she-wolf. She's _scary_ when she's angry."

"If it comes to that, blame me; tell her I made you do it. Let her vent on me if she wants. She seems to forget that she's not the only one who loves him. I don't have any family, you know; he's become like a son to me, and if she wants to yell at me for taking unusual steps to protect him, let her. It's my fault he thinks he knows Asa Kujaku. I didn't expect it would be that hard for him to master, and I can't convince him that he hasn't gotten far enough to try actually using it. And if I'm not there, I'm afraid he'll get too bold and try something stupid and end up either dying or permanently crippled."

Neji shrugged; "Right, okay. This is a bad idea, just so you know. I'd much rather just knock him out and be done with it if things get that crazy."

"What, and leave him vulnerable to attack? You have no idea what ninja warfare is like, Neji. Trust me, this is preferable."

"Whatever. You've already forced my hand by making sure Naruto overhears this. Now I can't pretend you didn't give this to me."

_I was right! He _did_ do it on purpose!_ crowed part of Naruto, while the rest of him tried to ignore it. Right about then, Shikamaru's team passed through the gate, with Shikamaru giving brief orders to Hanabi about what to look for. Briefly, Naruto envied that team for how well it had always worked together.

"Suckers!" Yamanaka Ino chimed happily, waving to Naruto and Neji as they passed by. "See you in Suna, Billboard-brow! Don't dawdle too long!"

"Right back at you, Ino-pig-chan!" Sakura hollered from behind Naruto, making the blond jounin jump.

"Yikes," Lee said, unplugging his ears after her yell. "You do have quite a set of lungs on you, Sakura."

"I imagine your neighbors already know that," Yumiya said suggestively, earning a blush from Sakura, an owlish stare from Lee, a laugh from Kakashi, and a punch from Gai and Yamato simultaneously. "Ow, fuck, man, that hurt! You guys should go easy on a girl!"

"You just said you're not a lady," Yamato reminded her with a laugh. "What, now you want to be treated like one? You talk like a man, we'll treat you like one!"

"Good god, you've been hanging around Kakashi too much," Gai said with a derisive snort as he got his roommate in a headlock and noogied her. She tried to elbow him where it'd hurt, but Gai was far too agile and was able to dodge it.

"What the hell, Gai? He was in Suna for six fucking months! How the fuck do you expect me to hang around with someone who's three-days' travel away? Hello, who was I around the most, asshole? YOU! You wanna blame someone, you blame yourself!" Yumiya grabbed with both hands onto the arm that locked around her neck and forcibly flipped Gai over her back, sending him sprawling into the dirt. "You're not as innocent as you'd like everyone to think, you perv."

"Not a very good way to flirt, you know, Yumiya," Shizune said with a grin as she and her team approached. "I know he's a tough one and he likes to play rough, but geez! If that were anyone but Gai, you'd probably have broken his neck!"

"Okay, that's just ridiculous," Yumiya straightened her jacket. "Why the hell would I flirt with Gai? Not only is he like a brother to me, he's totally not my type. _You_ are a hell of a lot more my type than he is, Shizune!"

Yumiya was a professed lesbian, though her actions with Gai made a lot of people doubt that. There were a lot of people who believed that Yumiya and Gai were lovers, even though Yumiya adamantly denied it and Gai usually was mum on the subject.

Shizune just grinned at her; "That sure looked like flirting to me. Very strange flirting, yes, but flirting still."

"Gah! You want me to start calling him Nii-chan or something? Will that shut all you fuckers up about that?" Yumiya crossed her arms. "Even if I'm not related to him, he's more like a brother to me than my real brothers ever have been."

Shizune laughed heartily; "You're so easy to rile up!"

"Cuz I'm gullible as hell, yes, I know, I get told that all the time."

"Good grief, Yumiya-chan!" Yuuhi Kurenai teased as she and her young son Sarutobi Hikaru passed by on their daily morning walks. Hikaru was a studious boy determined to graduate from the academy very soon and join his mother as a full ninja. He'd never gotten to meet his father, Sarutobi Asuma, who had died long before Hikaru was born. However, the boy had had no shortage of male figures in his life. He was very close to his much-older cousin Konohamaru; it was likely that Kurenai and Hikaru were both every bit as worried about Konohamaru as Naruto was. Kurenai was the usual jounin in charge of the team that Shizune was captaining right now; her lack of useable healing and her obligation to her young son meant she couldn't leave Konoha, so therefore Shizune took over. "I thought you were so tired you couldn't hardly stand; yet here you are throwing Gai around like a ragdoll. I'd hate to see you at full power."

"Stop calling me -chan!" Yumiya huffed. "And you know that I need to be tough on my own, just to put up with this bozo. God knows I can't count on my genjutsu to get me out of a stitch, especially if I'm trying to fight him; he stops everything I throw at him!" The tomboyish kunoichi shook her arms. "Without good taijutsu, I end up relying where I shouldn't. I'm nothing without the bloodline, you know. I fucking hate _kekkei genkai_. Getting called a genius for something you can't control whether or not you have is ridiculous."

Kurenai shook her head in amusement and she turned to her students; "Make me proud, Hinata," she said, giving the young Hyuuga successor a hug. "And if you do well in this, I think I'm going to pressure Tsunade-sama to oversee your promotion."

"Hey, what am I, chopped cucumber?" Shizune said in mock offense. "Which of us is closer to Tsunade-sama?"

Kurenai pointedly ignored the other kunoichi, though her son giggled. "Kiba, Shino... oh forget it, I'm already so proud of you two I could burst. Just be good and do what you're told, KIBA."

The young jounin grinned as his canine partner panted with silent laughter; "Anything to repay my debt to Kankurou, to be honest. I'll even put up with listening to what that crazy Kazekage says to do."

"Does he even remember that debt you proclaim to owe him?" Shino asked pointedly, shifting his arms noticeably and releasing a few bugs.

"I dunno, but Akamaru and I remember it, and that's enough." Akamaru yapped sharply in agreement.

"C'mon, let's go," Shizune said as she hitched her pack to settle it in the middle of her back. "We're burning daylight here."

Neji swatted Naruto; "Hey, taichou, what about us?"

"Are we all ready to go?"

"Yeah," Sakura said. "I had to give my mom the key to our apartment so that someone could get in and feed the fish regularly, and then listen to her go off about how unfair it is that my honeymoon's been interrupted, blah blah."

"Fish? _Fish?_" Neji stared at Lee. "You have pets? Are you out of your mind?"

"I'll remind you that I have fish too," Gai said.

"You have an outdoor pond, Gai-sensei; and besides, I already _know_ that you're out of your mind."

"Your fiancée has a dog and a cat," Naruto pointed out.

"She's also not a shinobi," Neji retorted. "She's always home to take care of them."

"My parents aren't shinobi anymore either," Sakura said matter-of-factly, "and they're more than happy to maintain our apartment in our absence."

"OW! Gai-sensei, that--- OW, let go!" Lee yelped. "My lungs!" Gai was hugging him enthusiastically, and Lee looked like he was going to collapse under the crushing hug.

"You fucking idiot, Gai," Yumiya said. Kurenai glared at her as she covered Hikaru's ears in a futile gesture to shield the boy from Yumiya's foul mouth.

"Let's go," Naruto said, noticing that Lee wanted to put some distance between himself and Gai. Neji and Sakura both nodded, and Lee shot Naruto a grateful look as he pulled away from Gai, shaking his limbs out.

"Idiot," Kakashi said, swatting Gai's head. "You're stronger than a bear, and he's fragile. You could crush his bones without thinking, and Tsunade-sama would have to go crazy on you. You think Sakura's a challenge when she's mad? Hokage-sama's temper is ten times worse, and her power is about ten times greater."

"I'd never hurt Lee and you know it!"

"We need to get out of here!" Lee said, hiding behind Sakura with a comical grin. "If we stay any longer, Gai-sensei will never let us leave!" Then he peered out at Kakashi. "And I am _not _fragile!"

"Could've fooled me," Kakashi drawled. "I mean, come on. Hiding behind a woman?"

Lee grinned and gave Sakura a gentle push toward the Copy-Nin; "Then you fight her."

"Uh, no," Kakashi's visible eye wrinkled in an obvious grin, "I've been on the receiving end. I'll pass."

"Can we quit dinking around?" Neji snapped. "We'll never get to Suna if you keep reminiscing!"

"Naruto-niichan!" A voice called desperately as a pair of young chuunin came racing up. They were Udon and Moegi, the teammates of the current ambassador in Suna. They, like Konohamaru, had grown up looking up to Naruto.

"What is it, Moegi?"

"Please," the kunoichi gasped between breaths, "please send word as soon as you find out about Konohamaru-kun! Ebisu-sensei just told us about what Hokage-sama fears, and we're afraid too! Please send word as soon as you find out!"

"I'll be sending word to Obaachan," the jounin said gently, patting the two chuunin on their heads. "It's up to her to decide if she informs you; it's not my decision. When dealing with the embassy, everything goes through the Hokage. You guys know that."

"Yeah but -- " Udon shifted his thick glasses. "Can't you just -- "

"I have to follow protocol," Naruto insisted. "Believe me, I understand how you feel. But I imagine Ebisu will keep you informed. He's a jounin, after all. But don't you all worry; Konohamaru's tough. He won't let a plague or a poison drop him before he can become Hokage, and if he's still alive when we get there, we'll definitely save him. Sakura-chan's the best poison-expert next to Obaachan, and Shizune-oneechan is best all-around healer next to Obaachan. So we'll make sure he comes home safely."

Lee came up behind him and gave the two chuunin his favorite "Nice Guy" pose as well; "Just as Naruto-kun said; if Konohamaru-kun can just hang on until we get there, he will be just fine. I know from personal experience that Sakura is every bit as good as Hokage-sama."

"Getting these morons to actually leave the village is like pulling teeth," Neji muttered. Yumiya punched him good-naturedly.

"Naruto," Kakashi spoke up before they could actually leave. "Don't be afraid to send for us. Gai and I can fight pretty damned well, and if this is a poison outbreak, or a plague that requires actual medication, you're going to need Yumiya's _kekkei genkai_ in order to create enough antidotes to treat the whole village."

"Understood."

After way too much time spent dawdling, the team got going. Because of Naruto and Lee's high cruising speed abilities, Neji and Sakura fell in directly behind them and used them as windbreakers to ease their own passage, and they caught up to both Team Shizune and Team Shikamaru in short order.

"What is Yumiya's _kekkei genkai_ again? I forget," Neji said as they moved.

"She can make plants grow at an accelerated rate, or increase their medicinal yield by several hundreds of percent," Sakura reported. "Especially useful for rare plants. It's got a nasty side-effect though. It costs her huge amounts of chakra and she has to use blood as if she's summoning, except a lot more blood. If she's not careful, she ends up anemic."

"She also can cast very elaborate genjutsu without as much cost in chakra, because of the bloodline limit," Lee added. "That is why she is considered a genius with genjutsu. It appears that the same ability that enables her to manipulate plants also enables her to manipulate chakra currents in humans, and means that she can not only cast genjutsu, but can control the victim's movements, something like a puppeteer does. Gai-sensei explained it to me once, how it works, but I am afraid I did not understand."

"She doesn't have a doujutsu _kekkei genkai_," Neji said, "so she can't actually see the chakra networks, right?"

"Right," Sakura said, "but she can sense them; you could almost say she can hear or smell them. It's not as good as seeing them, but she can sense where they are and how they're flowing, and she can change the flow to some degree. She's not as good as you are, since you have your Byakugan and your jyuuken. But she's a lot better than she gives herself credit for. The one time I sparred against her, she kicked my butt in three minutes flat, and berated me for being so weak."

"Ouch!" Lee's foot slipped on a branch, breaking his stride. "Damn!"

"Come on, Geji-mayu, get serious about this, will you? We've wasted enough time, I'm getting worried about Konohamaru."

Sakura frowned and bounced a punch off Naruto's head. "He _is_ being serious, Naruto. He just stepped wrong. It's not like you've never done anything silly like that before."

"And you were wasting time too, Naruto," Neji added.

"I know, I know, I'm just worried. Let's pick up the speed a bit."

Sakura sighed; this was going to be a long journey.

* * *

"Kazekage-sama, please," the aging jounin begged his leader, "I really must insist that you rest a bit. You are about to collapse! Not even you can use up that much chakra in so short an amount of time and expect to not be affected negatively by it."

"I'm fine, Baki," the red-haired kage snapped angrily, silently cursing his crippling fatigue. The sand was barely behaving itself. The wall he was trying to keep up around Sunagakure was crumbling even as he stood there, with one hand on it. His little familiar, Suna-chan, was trembling with effort as she clung to his shoulder, hiding beneath his cowl. "I am the Kazekage, and I will protect this village, even at the cost of my life, if it comes to that. That was the vow I made years ago when I first took the position, you remember."

Baki frowned but didn't respond. He returned his attention to the deathly-ill kunoichi beneath his hands. He wasn't very skilled in healing, but he had more skill than anyone still alive except Gaara, and Gaara was far too busy trying to shield Sunagakure, to both maintain a quarantine and to keep it safe from the impending invasions.

"Easy there, Sanami," he said gently, pressing his hands against the swell of her abdomen. There was clearly no life left in where there should have been. How long the baby had been dead was anyone's guess, though he hoped it was only very recently. Unlike those around her who had also fallen to the epidemic, Sanami's illness was agonizing and slow, leaving her bleeding and weak, but not delirious. Frankly, she was the oddball in the plague. Whatever this poison or plague was, it usually affected the sufferer's senses, making them hallucinate. Sanami was just in excruciating pain and bleeding constantly. Except for the timing, it would be easy to say she wasn't affected by whatever plagued the entire village, since no one else seemed to be suffering quite like her; but she had been fine five days ago when Gaara had first started making preparations to travel to Konoha. When the plague had first hit had been when the first signs of her miscarrying had appeared; now she was just steps away from death.

_Kankurou is going to be devastated when he gets home and sees this. I just hope she can at least hold on until he gets home, even if she doesn't make it. They deserve to at least be together at her end, since he didn't want to leave the village in the first place. He's been nothing if not devoted to her this past year since they married._

Gaara had arrived roughly three and a half days after departing the village, an impossible rate of travel. He had arrived home on the brink of collapse, having used some bizarre soldier pills to bolster his chakra and enable him to travel at three times the normal speed. He had also arrived alone, insisting he had left Temari and Kankurou behind in his concern for Sunagakure. He had nearly collapsed into Baki's arms upon arrival, and had demanded copious amounts of water. Even now he was drinking water like he was part kappa. This was highly unusual, especially when he was trying to keep his sand barrier up. Water weakened the consistency of the sand if it touched the sand, and yet Gaara was thirstily guzzling down liter after liter of water, hour after hour.

For the past thirty six hours the Kazekage had been holding up a gargantuan shield around Sunagakure. Every minute longer made the rings of black skin around the kage's eyes stand out in sharper relief as his normally-pale complexion became paler and waxier. He was running out of chakra at an alarming rate.

Gaara's hand moved, and a small translucent bead disappeared down the kage's throat. The redhead took a generous swig from the bottle of water belted at his hip. For a moment it seemed like nothing was going to happen, but then there was a flair of energy as the Kazekage's power increased rapidly.

Baki's hands trembled slightly.

What on earth was Gaara doing? Using soldier pills over and over like that was disastrous. It caused, among other things, paralyzing exhaustion, crippling anxiety, and sometimes even psychosis.

"Relax, Baki," Gaara said without looking at him. "I sent to Konoha for help when I first learned the extent of this disaster. By now the bird should be there and any help Hokage-sama can send us should be on its way. If I can hold out for three days, we will be okay."

_If?_ Baki's blood went to ice. Gaara had never shown such vulnerability. It wasn't like Gaara to say "If" -- he was more likely to say "I just need to hold this up for three days, and then everything will be fine."

_Please, Hokage-sama, send your fastest help_, he prayed silently. _ Kazekage-sama is getting reckless. This is even more dire than when he was kidnapped by Akatsuki, because he's the only thing between us and the enemies, and he's clearly not holding up very well._

* * *

"Oi, Geji-mayu," Naruto said as he paused briefly on the desert. It was just past sunrise on the third day after the message from Suna had come in. The three teams had agreed to take a longer route to ensure that they weren't waylaid by Mist-nin, so they'd lost about half a day in traveling because of that, but now Naruto's team was within a couple of hours of reaching Suna, if he was remembering correctly.

"Yes?"

"I've only made this journey once, and that time we got caught in a sandstorm, and we had Temari to guide us. So, er, what's the best way to approach Suna?"

"Straight ahead. We are headed directly for it. If Neji looks closely enough, he should see the outcroppings surrounding the city. I believe they are within range of his Byakugan."

"Nope," Neji said. "All I see is sand for acres ahead of us. No rock outcroppings at all."

"Oh, well, it is best to come at it from the front. Though I do wonder if Gaara-sama has some form of disguise up. I know he has some very elaborate shields available to raise around Suna if he needs them."

"Well, I can see through most genjutsu," Neji said stiffly. "The bigger it is, the easier to see through. And I'm not seeing anything but vast expanses of sand."

"Then you're not looking hard enough, Neji-oniisan," Hanabi said from behind them as Team Shikamaru finally caught up to them, "because _I_ can see the rock outcroppings, and if I focus hard enough, I can just make out the Kazekage's administrative building from here, just barely. It's hard to see it, because it's so far away, but there's nothing to obstruct my view, so I can see further here than I would normally, and I can see it. You're headed straight for it."

"Is there a sand wall around it?" Lee asked. "Can you see a sand wall?"

"Not from here, but like I said, I can only just make out the top of the building. It's pretty far away yet."

Hanabi's ability to see considerably further than anyone else with the Byakugan was one of Shikamaru's trump cards as a team leader. Hanabi could see trouble coming a literal mile away, giving Shikamaru, considered to be among the most brilliant tacticians in Konoha's history, plenty of time to formulate a plan; by that same token, she was almost invaluable as a long-distance scout, since, given a clear landscape with few obstacles for her to have to see through, she could see several miles away.

Lee frowned a bit. "The sand wall will be very obvious. The fact that you cannot see it means it is probably not up, which means Gaara-sama does not have enough chakra or concentration for it. So he is either too low on chakra for it, or he is engaged in combat, if it is not up around Sunagakure in a crisis."

"Or," Shikamaru replied, "it's all a ruse. It's not like no one else knows about that sand shield, Lee. He may have it rigged to a trigger, to go up if anyone gets close, but otherwise it stays down to make the village look vulnerable so he can trap them easier. Gaara's not one to go out looking for trouble; he lures trouble into range and crushes it instead. I remember Temari and Kankurou both boasting about the village's defenses."

"That, and it conserves on chakra to have the shield go up only when a threat is nearby," Sakura reasoned. "That makes sense."

"Still, we should hurry," Lee insisted. He had grown quieter as they neared the Sand village; his concern for Gaara was starting to show.

"No arguments here," Naruto said as he crouched down and launched off again.

"Chouji," Shikamaru said as the rest of the two teams started to follow the anxious blond jounin, "you keep watch once we get within sight of the village. If Gaara's using those soldier pills your clan created, it should affect the color of his chakra, which could indicate to us just how dire the situation is for us."

"Got it. I hope he hasn't been going too heavily on them. Those new ones are still in the developmental stages, and besides, using soldier pills too much in succession is a recipe for disaster. They're not as dangerous as these other ones, but they're dangerous enough." Chouji gestured meaningfully to his pouch, indicating to those who knew him well enough the package of three highly concentrated soldier pills very specifically formulated for members of the Akimichi clan. If used in succession, the risk of dying became extremely high, and treating the after-effects required exact doses of a complex antidote that so far only Tsunade was capable of making in a timely manner. Chouji himself had nearly died after resorting to them in a fight more than ten years ago.

"Well, he's got to have a reason, if he's using them," Hanabi reasoned. "Next to Naruto-san, Gaara-sama has the highest concentration of natural chakra I've ever seen."

"And we know why that is," Shikamaru said blandly.

"Even without Shukaku, he still has more chakra than anyone else except Naruto," Sakura responded.

"My point exactly: if Gaara-sama needs to use the soldier pills, he's got to have a reason, since he's got so much chakra naturally."

They lapsed into silence as they traveled across the hard-packed desert sand. Shizune and her team caught up in the meantime, though they ranged out at the back of the pack to keep an eye out for unfriendly company behind them.

Little more than an hour had passed before an immobile, familiar figure became visible on the horizon.

"Gaara!" Naruto hollered into the wind. "Boy am I glad to see you okay!"

The figure didn't respond, though as they got closer it was quite obviously the Kazekage.

"Gaara! Dammit, say something, don't just stand there and glare at us! We came to help!"

"Naruto," Neji put an arm in front of Naruto, "that's not Gaara."

"It is so!" Lee said indignantly.

"It's not even alive, whatever it is," Neji snapped angrily. "It's a bunshin of some sort, I think. It's hollow. There's no living chakra in it. And notice that it's not moving, not even in the wind?"

Gaara nearly always wore a long white sash across his torso that generally draped from his waist to hover just a few inches off the ground. It was just something that was a part of his usual garb. This Gaara was no different, but now that Neji pointed it out, the sash he wore wasn't moving at all, not even in the brisk wind kicking up from across the desert.

It was like this was a statue, except it certainly looked like a human being, not a sculpture.

"One way to test this," Lee said finally, reaching into his shuriken holster and pulling out a pair of shuriken. With a flick of his wrist, he sent them flying at the motionless form of the Kazekage.

The response was something of a surprise.

Instead of dodging or retaliating, the figure simply disintegrated upon impact, into a pile of sand.

"Nice work, puppetmaster," Gaara drolled as he emerged from a cloud generated by the sand-clone's collapse. "You really fooled them."

"Fuck you, Gaara, I can't move that!" Kankurou's angry voice retorted from somewhere behind him. "You want me to move that thing like a puppet, you gotta give it joints! Ever noticed how many joints are in my puppets? I can't move a single solid block of sandstone and make it look like anything but a moving block of sandstone!"

Abruptly the pile of loose sand launched skyward and spiraled down into the gourd situated, as usual, on the Kazekage's back. Gaara twisted the cork into place just as his raccoon familiar crawled out from underneath the cowl he wore. He sized up the contingent from Konoha, and for a moment everyone expected him to criticize their numbers.

Instead, he did something no one had ever seen him do.

He bowed.

* * *

**Coming soon: "Part Three: Black Plague, White Death" wherein the healers take on the bane of Sunagakure, and Sakura and Shizune discover what sinister ailment plagues Sanami.**

* * *

**END NOTES: Terminology, for those who are a bit rusty:  
**"**Geji-mayu**" is what Naruto calls Rock Lee. It translates as "fuzzy eyebrows" or as the English dub anime calls it, "Bushy Brow" and is Naruto's nickname for Lee. He doesn't mean anything rude by it, and Lee doesn't seem to mind.  
**Hitai-ate** are the "forehead protectors" (headbands) worn by all shinobi with symbols of their home village. Because they can be worn anywhere, or not worn at all, I have chosen to use the untranslated word rather than the term "forehead protector" or "headband"  
**Doujutsu** is performing a jutsu with the eyes, such as with the Sharingan or Byakugan, though there appears to be other forms of doujutsu that aren't _ kekkei genkai_.  
A **kunoichi** is a female ninja. It is often used in the series as a synonym for ninja or shinobi, when talking about a female. Thus it's used here sporadically much as it is in the series.  
A _**kekkei genkai**_ is, basically, a "bloodline limit" -- referring to a talent or trait that is passed down genetically. The Sharingan and the Byakugan are the two most well-known _kekkei genkai_ in this series.  
The Hyuuga clan use the **jyuuken** (Gentle Fist) style of taijutsu, which requires the Byakugan to execute properly. The jyuuken style targets the chakra network and internal organs.  
A **bijuu** is one of the nine different tailed demons. A human container of a bijuu is called a **Jinchuuriki**. Gaara was the Jinchuuriki for Shukaku, the Ichibi (One-Tailed) before the Akatsuki drew it out of him, and Naruto is the Jinchuuriki for the Kyuubi (Nine-Tailed)  
**Taichou** means captain, in a manner of speaking.  
A **kappa** is a mythological Japanese water creature. 


	4. Part Three: Black Plague, White Death

**Author's Note**: As stated in the prologue and first chapter, this is set way out from the start of the series, and is so far based on about chapter 360 of the manga, no further, since that's where the manga was when I started this project. Therefore, it's probably AU. Refer to the Author's Note in the first chapter for more details. Also, for continuity's sake, I'm ignoring the filler arcs, like the final arc where Gaara goes almost completely OOC in fighting against Seimei. Also, the anime-only character Matsuri annoys the hell out of me -- she's too much of a canon-sue. As far as I'm concerned, this story is based almost entirely on canon episodes only.

About Sanami's illness: I've done as much research as I can on uterine cancers. It's not pleasant to read about, and the sheer volume of information available, nevermind the amount of medical technobabble jargon, is mind-boggling. I'm very much shooting from the hip here, even with all the research I've been doing. Therefore, if you spot something that seems inconsistent, please tell me about it, because chances are I've misinterpreted information or I'm just making something up because I don't know. If I've made a mistake, I'd like to know about it, please.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own any part of "Naruto" or its characters. It all belongs to the incomparable Masashi Kishimoto-sensei. I'm just playing in the sandbox of this amazing world.

**Warning**: Coarse language. Kankurou is falling apart emotionally here, so he's a little loose with the language. Expect F-bombs and other profanity or expletives.

* * *

_"The flower which blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all." --proverb from "Mulan"_

* * *

**"The Flower in Adversity"  
Part Three: Black Plague, White Death**

"Words alone cannot express my relief that you have arrived," Gaara said, his voice heavy with fatigue. "I will transport all healers to the infirmary now; I ask that all others follow Kankurou and Temari to the temporary headquarters for further instructions. Now, which of you were dispatched as healers?"

The five kunoichi stepped forward almost simultaneously. The Kazekage beckoned them closer. Sakura hesitated, glancing back at her team, not even sure if she was looking at Naruto or at Lee for comfort and reassurance. Both of them looked back at her with complete composure and mild encouragement.

"Closer," Gaara said peevishly, removing the cork he'd just place into the mouth of the gourd. "I need you to be in physical contact with me if I am going to transport you five. This will likely use up what is left of my chakra, so be quick." Chakra-rich sand bubbled out of the gourd and cascaded to the ground, gathering around his feet.

"Can't you just lead us there?" Sakura asked. "Why do you need to use your chakra to transport us? Can't we just _walk _there?"

The Kazekage looked at her with his unnerving jade-green eyes. She briefly remembered, abstractly, that even Kakashi had been intimidated by those eyes. And Kakashi was one of the most battle-experienced ninja in all of Konoha; he'd seen and experienced just about everything. For even him to be intimidated by those emotionless eyes was saying something. And yet, even though Gaara was clearly displeased at her hesitation, there wasn't an ounce of malice or ill-temper in his gaze. Just sheer annoyance.

"I could, but that will take longer. My people are in need of help _now_. Even now some of them may be dead that weren't five minutes ago."

The Kazekage pushed up his long sleeves, exposing his pale bare arms to the elbows. "I need you five to be in direct physical contact with me, or else the sand will exclude you. That is not something I have any control over; it has always had a mind of its own. Grab onto my arms, but do not inhibit my movements."

The other kunochi all did as asked; Sakura, for reasons she couldn't explain, hesitated again. Gaara's face contorted briefly in exasperation and he grabbed her arm with his left hand, pulling her toward him so that she slammed against his shoulder. She wanted to protest, but there was something in his mannerism that forestalled her. Her face was literally inches from his, and she could see in sharp relief the toll this crisis was taking on him.

Around her, he brought his hands together in a hand-seal, and the sand beneath his feet began to spiral up around them all.

Abruptly, Sakura was consumed by panic as her imagination went into overdrive. All she could think about was how ten and a half years ago, this very sand of Gaara's had crushed Lee's left arm and leg, leaving him badly crippled and in danger of losing his career. It had also triggered a reaction in the younger Gaara, causing him to lose control and become a sand demon, or so she recalled.

She was frozen in panic, when suddenly a sharp pain in her ear brought her to her senses. Turning her head sharply, she found herself face to face with Gaara's little raccoon familiar. Suna-chan had bitten Sakura's ear, gently enough to not draw blood, but firmly enough to gain her attention. The raccoon was clearly trying to tell her something. Oddly, the little creature's vexation at her seemed to put her mind at ease.

The sand surrounding them all coalesced into a circular shell, and then it felt like the ground fell away from beneath their feet. Ino made an uncomfortable noise, and even Shizune caught her breath in consternation. The Hyuuga sisters, however, seemed both completely unfazed.

They couldn't have been suspended more than thirty seconds before suddenly they seemed to crash to the ground. Gaara held his landing, and by extension no one fell, though the five women all staggered at the sudden stop. The sand shield disintegrated to reveal that they stood at the top of the administrative building, on the balcony on the roof.

Gaara wasted no time leading them to the doorway, down a stairwell and to another door inside the building.

When he pushed the door to the infirmary open, he nearly collided with Baki.

"Hey, watch where you're -- Oh! My apologies, Kazekage-sama."

"Any more?" Gaara said without preamble, causing the kunoichi behind him to pause in confusion. Any more what?

"Lost two more," Baki said with a weary sigh. "Those two chuunin you said you didn't think would last the night. The first one went into convulsions I swear not even five minutes after you left the room. The other died here just a few minutes ago; she hasn't even started developing rigor mortis yet. The rest seem to be hanging in there; I've sent for more burdock." He raised an eyebrow at the five women that gathered around the Kazekage. "Are you all healers?"

"Yes," Shizune responded. "We were dispatched by Hokage-sama. I'm afraid we are all that can be spared at this time."

"Did Hokage-sama send us fighters too?" Baki looked at Gaara, who nodded once. "How many?"

"Three four-man-squads arrived a few minutes ago."

"Five of them healers? So that's seven fighters and five healers? Oh, bless Hokage-sama!" Baki let out a huge sigh of relief. "I should have known she'd come through for us. I admit I was a bit worried that she might not take the message seriously."

Gaara snorted softly. "I deliberately didn't encode it, so that she'd know it came from me. You heard Kankurou's reaction when I told him I'd sent the message unencoded."

"Well, it was definitely risky. But this was an emergency."

"Is this all of your sick?" Ino said with a frown. "I thought half your village was stricken." While the infirmary was crowded, it was clearly only a fraction of the village's population.

"It is," Gaara said. "These are the worst cases, the ones who need 'round-the-clock care. The rest are in their own homes, trying to deal as best they can. Now, if you will excuse me. I will leave everything in your hands, Baki. I'm going to go collapse in a corner for a while."

Amazingly, since that's pretty much exactly what Gaara did, Baki didn't even flinch at the wording. He simply nodded and watched silently as his Kazekage walked over to an unoccupied space beneath a nearby window, leaned against the wall, and slouched into a sitting position.

"Uh," Ino said as she watched Gaara slump against the wall. "There _are_ unoccupied beds here, he doesn't need to do that if he's so tired. And doesn't he have his own living quarters?"

"The beds are for those who are ill and in need of care," Baki replied. "And yes, Kazekage-sama does have his own living quarters, but they are some distance away; this way, he can be easily roused if an emergency arises. At this point, he and his siblings are both our first and our last line of defense." Baki rubbed his shoulders wearily. "Aside from Kankurou, Temari and myself, there are five jounin left alive in the entire village, and all five of those are in this room. Two are not expected to live out the night, and one... well, she has already outlived expectation, so we have no idea how much longer she has, but the chances of her even surviving, let alone resuming her career, diminish continually. That's eight jounin, in the entire village. The ratio of shinobi deaths to civilian deaths since this plague hit is currently somewhere between three-to-one and four-to-one."

* * *

Even knowing that half of the population of Sunagakure was dead, it was still eerily silent and deserted as Kankurou and Temari escorted the seven Konoha shinobi toward the administrative building. 

"Something is not right here," Shino observed. "If half of the village is dead, where are the bodies? I see no graves or pyres at all. Surely they are not being left in their own homes to rot?"

"Eww, you have some weird ideas, Shino," Naruto shuddered.

"Gaara takes the dead out into the desert and consigns them to temporary graves," Temari said. "When this whole crisis is over, he'll exume them and we'll give them all proper pyres, but until we know exactly how this epidemic has spread, we try to keep the corpses quarantined away from the living. Burning that many diseased cadavers is a health risk, and with almost everyone in the village in compromised health... well, you can understand, surely."

"So you're saying that right now he's buried the dead out in the desert?" Chouji asked. "In all that shifting loose sand?"

"Well, yes, but you're forgetting that Gaara has minute control over the density of sand. They won't be going anywhere at all until he exhumes them."

"I understand," Lee said. "I recall seeing him use a technique in which he created a huge wave of sand to bury an opponent, and then hardened it to the density of stone."

Temari paused; "When did you ever see Ryuusa Bakuryuu and Sabaku Taisou?"

"A long time ago, against a Sound ninja."

"Oh, right, that time he was your backup; he did mention having to use all his most advanced techniques against that opponent."

"I swear, if there is a god, may He condemn all stupid little brothers," Kankurou seethed. "If I thought I could get away with it, I'd beat him within an inch of his life for being so reckless. Stupid Gaara."

Lee tilted his head at the puppetmaster; "Why are you so angry with him?"

"Don't mind him," Temari said, patting Kankurou on the shoulder somewhat awkwardly. The puppeteer just glared at her. "Kankurou's taking this whole thing a lot harder than Gaara or I, because it's hitting him a lot closer to home."

"That doesn't answer the question of why he's so angry with Kazekage-sama," Shino pointed out.

"Gaara's been acting like he's some fucking kind of god," Kankurou growled. "Or like he thinks he's some kind of god. He's been going for, what, a week straight, with absolutely no rest at all. If he doesn't fall completely apart, beyond all repair, after this, I'll be fucking amazed. Soldier pills are fucking _dangerous_, and he's been consuming them like they're vitamins or something! That Akimichi jounin, when he sold those new ones to me, warned me about six different times to be very careful with those things, because they're still being developed; the full extent of their side-effects aren't known yet. And here Gaara's been anything _but _careful. Reckless asshole. He's only human, especially now that Shukaku's gone. Last thing on earth I want to deal with is that old Gaara, the one who killed for the sheer random hell of it."

"I don't think that's likely to happen, Kankurou," Temari said mildly. "He's grown up, after all."

"He's still got that instability in there, and you know it. And with what soldier pills can do to a person's mind, he could end up broken beyond repair. Fuck, that crazy silver-haired Leaf jounin's wacky eye troubles about floored Gaara several times."

They passed a building that Lee vaguely remembered housing the medicinal greenhouse. As they did, the door to the building was flung open and a ninja came barreling out of it, muttering to himself. He did this so recklessly that he collided head-on with Lee, knocking him into Naruto, who in turn collided with Kankurou, and the four of them skidded into a heap.

"What the fuck, kid?" Kankurou snapped. "There's no need to be running like that!"

"Ah, shut your trap, Kankurou," the ninja said peevishly.

Naruto froze at that voice. He knew that voice so well. Disentangling himself from the other jounin, he turned and faced one of his oldest friends.

"Konohamaru?!"

"Naruto-niichan?" The chuunin gaped. "Wait a second, what the hell are you doing here?"

"Gaara sent for them, you idiot. You know about that; you helped him strap the message to the bird!" Kankurou swatted the brunette Leaf-nin.

"You didn't get sick?" Naruto blinked slowly, trying to digest this. He'd only just recently come to terms with the possibility of Konohamaru being dead; seeing him hale and healthy and alive was something of a shock.

"Well, I threw up a few times the first couple of days, and I ran a hell of a fever. I might've been in worse shape if Gaara-sama hadn't come back when he did; he put together the febrifuge that brought my fever down. But other than that, I'm fine."

"Fine," Kankurou grumbled. "You're still a runt."

Konohamaru punched the puppeteer in the stomach. "Shut up, you. I'm still an ambassador, even if right now I'm reduced to being Baki-sama's errand-boy because there's hardly anyone around to do it. Besides," he added, holding up a small pouch in his hands, and glaring accusingly at Kankurou, "this is_ your_ wife we're trying to save. Don't yell at me for hurrying, she doesn't have any time to spare in her condition."

"Tch," Kankurou huffed, turning away abruptly. "You guys heard what Gaara said." His voice wavered. "Whatever it is that she's suffering from, it's not cureable."

"Sorry," Konohamaru retorted, "but I fail to see Gaara-sama as a medical expert. He is knowledgeable, yes, but before this plague hit, there were dozens of ninja who knew more about disease and poison than he does. Just because Gaara-sama says it's impossible doesn't mean it really is. You forget; I'm a Leaf-nin, and our Godaime Hokage is a medical genius."

"And _you_ forget that our Godaime Kazekage is far more intelligent and literate than he seems. He singlehandedly pulled us back from the brink of financial ruin. He may not have the field experience as a healer and medic that your Hokage has, but he has the book learning of ten people. Bah, forget it, why am I even bothering to argue with you about this _again?_" He took a deep breath. "If I were a better man, a less-selfish person, I'd ask Gaara to end her suffering. I can't bear to see her in so much pain, and yet I can't bear to let her go yet."

"You arrogant asshole," Konohamaru said incredulously. "You think you have the right to make that decision for her? Seriously, I almost hope you do ask Kazekage-sama to do that, just because I'd love to see him slap you for presuming to know what's best for her."

"Easy, Konohamaru-san," Temari said, stepping between them, "please don't antagonize him. You forget that he grieves for more than just Sanami. His entire puppeteers' corps has been wiped out by this epidemic as well, not to mention the personal cost. And Kankurou," she turned to her brother. "Stop being such a martyr. We've _all_ lost a lot. I don't know how we're going to recover from this, even if the healers can save the people who are still alive. With only a handful of jounin, a dozen and a half chuunin and a couple dozen genin, we're never going to be able to fulfill all our missions, not even if Gaara takes on some of the workload, which he shouldn't."

"One more thing," Konohamaru said through clenched teeth. "If you were around the infirmary a bit more, you'd know Sanami-san has regained consciousness a few times. You don't have the right to dictate whether she lives or dies, not when she's still cognizant. That's her choice, not yours. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm late. Baki-sama has patients that need this burdock. This is the last of it, so I hope the patients pull through." The chuunin darted off, augmenting his speed with some body-flicker ninjutsu.

Kankurou trembled and brought a hand up to cover his eyes. "I hate this. I hate everything about this. God, if I had a fraction of Gaara's power, I'd storm Kirigakure and wipe that goddamn Mizukage from the face of this earth." His voice cracked with evidence of his grief. It was clear he was only barely holding his tears in. "For the first time in longer than I can recall, I wish Father was still alive. And if Gaara were to hear me say that, he'd probably slap me for it."

Temari looked over at him and her expression softened with pain. "We don't even know if this was in fact Kirigakure's doing alone. We can't fight a war in four directions. We can barely defend ourselves as it is. We're all hurting, Kankurou; even Gaara is hurting. He's already lamented that he wants to end everyone's suffering, that he'd take it all on himself if only he could. You heard him last night, when he said that for the first time ever, he wishes he still had Shukaku."

"What?" Lee's jaw dropped open. "But why? The demon made his life a living hell!"

"Shukaku was dangerous and made his life hell, yes, but he also had extraordinary amounts of chakra, and absolutely precise control over sand. It wouldn't cost him half the amount of chakra it does to set up sand shields if he used Shukaku's chakra to do it."

"Was he ever able to use Shukaku's chakra without that stupid tanuki getting in the way?" Naruto asked.

"He was learning to control Shukaku at the time that he was promoted to Kazekage; that's why the Council allowed him to be promoted, since they were suspicious of him otherwise. He never got a chance to master it before that whole fiasco with Akatsuki happened. I thought you knew all this, Naruto. All that information is available in public record."

"Gaara's probably wondering what the hell's keeping us," Kankurou said abruptly. "We need to get moving. In his mood, I don't think we should keep him waiting too long."

* * *

Sakura examined one of the jounin, one suspected of being poisoned rather than diseased. Shizune, a disease expert in recent years, had figured this one to be a poison incident, and had left it to Sakura to figure out the poison. Baki was standing beside where Gaara slumped against the wall, giving off the appearance of a silent guardian. Ostensibly, he was standing there so as to be out of the healers' way; in reality, it was pretty clear that he was worried about Gaara. 

_This poison seems to be attacking soft tissue,_ she thought as she looked over the chart information. Baki claimed to not be very good with medical ninjutsu or dealing with medicines, but he was extremely thorough and documented everything minutely, including a tiny vial of a blood sample drawn when he was admitted into the infirmary, something she was grateful for. She didn't want to draw any more blood from this poor young man than had already been lost. It didn't look like he had much to spare. _It's not attacking muscles, it's attacking tissue, and perhaps blood vessels. Looks like he's bordering on being anemic. It's a slow-acting poison. If I can break it down and make an antidote within the next few hours, he should make a full recovery, if everything goes smoothly. Doesn't look like I need to pull the poison out of his system, it's not concentrated on any one area, so I don't know that I'd be able to get much out. They've been giving him a lot of diuretics and a lot of hydration, I see, so he's relatively stable, but he doesn't have much time before it starts breaking down the vital tissues._

The door clattered open, startling Sakura.

"Baki-sama, sorry I'm late. This is the last of the burdock. Oh, and the Konoha reinforcements are here! I just saw them!"

"Konohamaru?" Sakura gaped at the chuunin. "You're okay?"

"Sakura-neechan! I was hoping you'd come! Now I know everything will be okay! Uh, Baki-sama? Oh, there you -- whoa, holy crap! What happened to Gaara-sama?!"

_Same old Konohamaru, highly distractible._

"Don't worry," Baki intercepted the chuunin. "He's just resting. He's had to use far more chakra today than he usually uses in a month. Don't disturb him."

"Here's the last of the burdock," Konohamaru handed over the pouch. "What do you want me to do next?"

"Have some rooms prepared for the reinforcements. They're here at our request; we can't expect them to sleep on the street like rats."

"Right, okay."

"There are twelve of them."

"Though, eleven beds will suffice, as long as one of them is big enough to fit two," Ino said coyly, ribbing Sakura playfully. Sakura gallantly tried to ignore her. Konohamaru paused to look at her quizzically, before the proverbial lightbulb went on over his head. He knew about Sakura and Lee's recent wedding, and if he'd seen the other reinforcements outside, he must've spotted Lee. Lee was rather hard to miss, after all.

"Oi, Gaara, where the hell are ya?" Kankurou called from the hallway. "I thought we were meeting in your office!" He poked his head in the infirmary room. "Gaara?"

"Pipe down, Kankurou," Baki said peevishly. "Kazekage-sama is trying to rest; he's had it, you know. That automatic sand shield he's set up around Sunagakure takes three-quarters of his chakra just to set up. I just hope it isn't necessary and doesn't activate while he's down and out like this; it'll either fail completely, backfire, or it'll drain him of his life-energy and kill him."

"Does he need extra chakra?" Sakura asked, turning around. "Naruto's got more than enough for anyone, and he's learned how to convert and transfer it. I know he'd be more than happy to give Gaara any amount of chakra he requires."

"Hmm," Baki's eyebrows knitted. He nudged the Kazekage very gently with a foot. "Did you hear that, Kazekage-sama?"

"Of course I heard it," the kage groused. "You're so damned noisy, how could I not? But chakra alone isn't going to help me right now. I need rest. You forget, my body can't take the same kind of strain that Kankurou and Temari can."

By this point, the rest of the Konoha contingent had filed into the room, though most of them stayed near the door. Lee moved over to stand next to Sakura out of habit.

"Naruto, did you see?" Sakura asked. "Konohamaru's fine, he wasn't affected at all!"

"Yeah, I saw him," Naruto replied. "He ran into us -- literally -- out on the street. I was all prepared to learn that he was dead or nearly dead, and I find him running around like he always does. Quite a shock, really. He was affected, but he's fine now. He said he got sick but he got over it."

"So did Baki," Kankurou said. "Was sick for a day and a half, apparently, and then was fine. Temari's coming down with something, but it hasn't knocked her off her feet, and I haven't felt anything yet. And of course, Gaara's unaffected by whatever it is. That's what's so bizarre about this. Most of our top-ranked ninja died in very short order, but not all."

"Interesting," Shizune said. "Baki-dono, I can see you've been very meticulous in documenting all the medical information here; do you still have the medical records and charts for the deceased?"

"Well," Baki shrugged idly, "what ones we were able to even get charts done for, yes. Many died before we could get any kind of treatment to them. The bulk of the deaths happened within twenty hours or so of the epidemic landing. Gaara is very particular about keeping detailed records of things, so we kept as detailed records of the deaths as we could, but it was quite overwhelming the first forty-eight hours or so. In most of those cases, it was all we could do to document their names, ranks, and approximately when they died. Many of them we don't even have symptom information on, because they were found dead. But, yes, we have records of nearly every death of this plague. There aren't many who can help us in the medicinal field, but they can help us by keeping accurate records so that when this fiasco is over, we can give all the dead their proper respects and burial."

Shizune's brows pressed together in concentration. "Do you mind getting those records for me? I want to see if there's a pattern. So far no two patients I've examined are exhibiting the same set of symptoms, which means we're probably dealing with more than just one poison or disease. It could very well be that this epidemic was released in stages."

"Have Konohamaru get them when he gets back," Gaara mumbled. "Don't you dare move, Baki."

He reached up and clawed onto the jounin's arm, using him for leverage and hauling himself to his feet. Baki, for his part, held himself solidly rooted like a statue, giving his Kazekage a firm foundation to lean on. Gaara looked wearily over at the Konoha contingent. "Uzumaki Naruto, I hear you are capable of transferring your own chakra to another?"

"Yeah, to some degree. You need some? You look like hell, after all. I mean, don't get me wrong and all..."

"I'm sorry," Gaara said, blinking slowly, "but yes, I do need some. I will need rest too, but I suppose with a chakra boost I can postpone that until things are sorted out. That automatic sand shield I set up around Sunagakure took more out of me than I expected."

Naruto started making a few hand seals as he strolled over to the exhausted Kazekage. "Hold still, this might hurt a little at first, since it's different chakra than you're used to. It's the Kyuubi's chakra, so it's more raw. I've learned that Kyuubi's chakra is more potent and it also stimulates the production of natural chakra." His hands glowed an orange-red as he placed them on Gaara's shoulders.

Sakura bit her lip, remembering the first time Naruto had given her some of Kyuubi's chakra. It had hurt like blazing hell. She'd thought that it had burned her chakra points closed, though Neji had assured her that wasn't true. It was because the Kyuubi's chakra was of a fire element that it felt like it burned.

Gaara didn't flinch as the chakra flowed into him. He didn't even close his eyes, though his gaze became vacant for a moment.

In that moment, there was a strange snapping noise and a tiny dark object split the air, hurtling toward Naruto and Gaara. Kankurou lunged sideways and intercepted it, catching it in his hand. "What the hell, Nara? You trying to assassinate the Kazekage or your own future Hokage?"

"Uh, neither," Shikamaru said, his face turning red with chagrin as his hair cascaded messily around his face. "That was an accident, I'll have you know. I guess that hairband had had enough. Trust me, I'd do something else if I were trying to assassinate someone!"

"Mmm," Gaara murmured as his eyes focused again when Naruto pulled his hands away. "That felt like Shukaku's chakra. Except it tasted like smoke and smelled like fire, instead of sand and wind."

"Huh?" Naruto tilted his head. "You can taste and smell chakra?"

"It is a metaphor, Naruto," Gaara said with a slight quirk to his mouth, the equivalent of a smile.

"Er," Konohamaru poked his head into the room, "Baki-sama, we have a problem. Most of the guest rooms are unusable because of the quarantine. We've got, at best, maybe eight beds that weren't used in triage."

"Great," Baki grumbled. "I'd forgotten about that."

"I have two beds in my private suite," Gaara said. "And until this crisis is over, I will not be using that suite at all."

"I won't be using mine while Sanami's in here," Kankurou said. "And I've got a full-sized double, so it can count as two beds. As long as whoever borrows it doesn't mind the puppets on the walls. I know they're kind of freaky looking, but they're harmless."

"And mine, I've got a new mattress on mine too, but I'm too keyed up to sleep in it," Temari said. "I'm good with crashing on that couch in your office, Gaara."

"So that should take care of it," Gaara said. "You three, come with me." He pointed at Lee, Sakura and Naruto in rapid succession. "This will not take long."

"Huh?" Sakura looked at her teammates. Lee nudged her shoulder very discreetly, and Naruto nodded his head in a gesture of acceptance.

"Come on, Sakura," Lee murmured in her ear. "You can come back to this as soon as this is over. If Gaara-sama says it will not take long, it will be very brief."

Sakura reluctantly set the medical chart down on the table beside the hospital bed and followed her two teammates and the Kazekage out of the room. Lee and Naruto both moved to walk on either side of her, as if protecting her, and she couldn't quite tell if this was conscious or not. She guessed it probably wasn't, since both of them trusted Gaara unfailingly. Still, it was both disconcerting -- this display of protectiveness when there was no obvious threat -- and comforting -- the two men she cared most for in all the world were here beside her, offering her moral support and some protection should something happen.

Gaara led them down a number of corridors. Sakura tried to remember where they were going so she could get back on her own, but quickly became confused. She'd just have to rely on Lee to show her the way back to the infirmary. He knew this building very well, and he had developed a near-perfect memory for locations in recent years. Once he'd gone a route once, he could repeat it indefinitely.

Abruptly they stopped before a giant double-door that had the kanji for "kazekage" superimposed over the hour-glass symbol that adorned all Suna-nin hitai-ate. Gaara pushed the doors open without a fuss, and snapped on the lights of the antechamber, which was rather spartan in its decor. Off to one side was another doorway; off to the other was an archway leading further into the suite.

"Naruto, this will be your room," Gaara said, tapping the closed door. "I'm not sure what this room's original purpose is, since no Kazekage has ever used it as a guest room, but it is furnished as a bedroom. It is likely a little dusty, since it hasn't been tended to since the plague hit, but other than that, it is clean."

He then turned and moved determinedly into the main suite, leading the others as he did so. Off to one side was the doorway to the washroom There was a small kitchenette, not much of one, and it looked like it was hardly used. There was also a small study, complete with a small bookcase and austere desk. Another door was situated near the window.

"This is the main bedroom. It has a full-sized double bed." Gaara placed a hand on this door. "There is also a fully equipped private washroom, and a large closet, though I don't think you'll be needing that. As I said, while this crisis is going on, I will not be using this suite at all." He thumped the door meaningfully. "These rooms offer the most privacy of any available. Lee-san, Sakura-san, as a gesture of my gratitude for your willingness to interrupt your honeymoon to come to my aid, this is the best I can offer you, I am afraid."

"Gaara, we can't -- " Sakura started to say, but Lee nudged her again.

"We are very honored, Kazekage-sama," he said, bowing before Gaara. The Kazekage's face folded slightly.

"Rock Lee, do not be so formal with me in private. You know how I hate that. 'Kazekage' is my title, not my name."

"Oi, Geji-mayu," Naruto said, raising an eyebrow, "how often were you and Gaara 'in private' anyway?"

"Shut up, Naruto," Lee snarled aggressively, uncharacteristically omitting the honorific he usually used with Naruto; his aggression caused the blond jounin to back off quickly.

"Yikes, I was just... you know, curious."

Gaara rolled his eyes. "Do those rumors still plague you? Ridiculous. Two men cannot be friends without ugly rumors, it seems."

"Not when one is the most powerful ninja in his village, and can strongarm the daimyou into doing what he wants."

"You give me too much credit," Gaara said with a snort. "The daimyou is just afraid of me. My lack of social graces actually works with him."

"Oi, Geji-mayu, you ought to know that's not what I meant, geez!" Naruto complained. "I'd be right angry if you did... you know... and then ended up marrying Sakura-chan."

"Why?" Gaara turned his eyes on Naruto. "What does the past matter?"

Naruto looked like he was going choke.

"Nothing happened," Lee growled. "How many times do I need to say that? We were _friends_, nothing more."

"It doesn't help, I suppose," Gaara mused, seeming more relaxed and open than Sakura could ever remember seeing him, "that I don't approach other people; you remain the only ambassador to make an effort to befriend me. I am not opposed to friendship, but I know nothing about how to initiate one."

_Initiate? Opposition? He talks about friendship like it's a contracted agreement!_

"Anyway," Gaara folded his arms, "we should be getting back." He looked pointedly at Lee. "You know where my office is." This wasn't a question, though it could almost be construed as one.

"Yes."

"You and Naruto head there. That is our temporary headquarters. I need to take Sakura-san back to the infirmary and show her something."

"Sanami-san?" Lee inquired.

"You heard?"

"Yes. Kankurou-san and Konohamaru-kun got into an argument about her condition."

"Ah. Well, Konohamaru seems to think she'll get better. I rather doubt it. The miscarriage is the least of her worries. Frankly, I'm amazed she has lived this long. She is dying by inches. And her illness alone I don't think we can blame on Kirigakure or any of the other villages. I think it is coincidence, or maybe the epidemic triggered a reaction that was about to happen anyway because of a weakend immune system. She has been behaving strangely for months. She has gotten progressively more meek and quiet, aloof."

He started toward the door, motioning for Sakura to follow him. Sakura hesitated again, though she noticed that the little raccoon that was always with the Kazekage poked its head out of his cowl to glare at her reproachfully.

Lee planted a kiss on her left temple before letting go of her (she realized belatedly that at some point he had put his arms around her protectively, sometime during Gaara's monologue about Sanami). "If anyone can save Sanami-san, I have faith in you, Sakura."

Bolstered by his confidence and the prospect of returning to patients who needed her, Sakura followed Gaara back out into the hallway. The Kazekage moved rapidly, though his movements were unhurried.

As they strode through the hallways, Sakura paused, causing Gaara to stop briefly to look back at her.

"May I ask you a personal question, Kazekage-sama?" she asked hesitantly.

"You may ask," he said, "but I may not answer."

_Well, Lee did warn me that Gaara is very literal,_ she thought to herself.

"I should preface this by saying that I do not suspect Lee of lying to me, I trust he is being as truthful as he can; but I need to know, did anything happen between you two? Anything at all? Anything that perhaps he didn't realize was interpreted a certain way?"

"Why do you care? Even if anything did happen, it was long ago, and any residual feelings have subsided."

"Because it still bothers him. You saw how he reacted when Naruto made a comment. He does that with anyone. He blows a gasket when anyone asks him about you. And, to compound things, you showed up for our wedding. Now, don't get me wrong, it was a great honor to have you there, and we were both glad to see you bless our marriage, but you know that fueled the rumors, don't you?"

Gaara looked confused. "They still think that? It has been, what, four years now? Good grief, have they nothing better to gossip about?"

"Why did you come to our wedding, anyway?" She tilted her head to try and indicate that she wasn't being interrogative. "That's such a long trip. Lee told me that you hate to leave Suna. Why did you come all the way to Konoha for just a few hours."

"I had more than one reason to be in Konoha at that time. I do rather dislike leaving my village, though I get tired of the people genuflecting all the time. Still, it is easier to escape that by going to my office or my suite. But I had my reasons for being in Konoha, and they are my reasons alone. You have no right to know them. But they have little to do with you or Rock Lee, if that puts your mind at ease.

"As for why I chose to attend your nuptials ceremony, it should be obvious. Rock Lee is one of my only friends. I felt that as a friend, I owed it to him to be present for such an important event, since I was in Konoha anyway. I did not travel all the way to Konoha just for your marriage ceremony."

"Can you please tell me, though, did anything specific happen between you two?"

"No, I cannot tell you. You have no right to ask me that." He didn't sound angry, just matter-of-fact. "Ask him. I cannot speak for him, anyway."

"He insists nothing happened."

"Then you must be content with that answer. You say that you trust him, and yet here you are asking me."

"Because I trust him to know his own heart, but your actions make me wonder."

"My actions?" He seemed taken aback. "What have I done?"

She couldn't answer, because she realized that anything he'd ever done, she'd interpreted a certain way, but if one just looked at it completely objectively, there was nothing untoward about anything he'd done. It had all been perception. Still, it wasn't like she was the only one to read this into those actions. And frankly, if the rumors had some truth, she didn't mind, other than she didn't like being lied to. She could accept Lee being bisexual, frankly. Konoha was very tolerant of less traditional relationships.

"Well?" He sounded annoyed. "Can you answer that?"

"I guess not. Look, I'm just... confused, I guess."

"I have never known Rock Lee to _ever_ go back on a promise, especially one he makes in front of so many others. I do not think you need to worry about his attentions straying, no matter who you're encountering. Now, come along, I think the patients have waited long enough for relief."

* * *

As they arrived in the infirmary, Sakura noticed that the other healers were all gathered around a particular bed at the far end of the infirmary. Kankurou was crouched behisde the bed, holding the patient's hand. 

It took her a few moments to recognize this as the spunky young jounin who had sassed the hell out of Kankurou in front of everyone at the summer Chuunin Selection Exams a little over six months ago. What remained of the sassy kunoichi was a shell of her old self. Her complexion was waxy and pale, her light brown hair looked like it was barely hanging onto her scalp, and her dark blue eyes were sunken into her face. Her features were gaunt, and she looked like she hadn't been able to keep a meal down in some time. At the same time, her stomach swelled with evidence of her recently-terminated pregnancy.

Hinata and Hanabi were both using their Byakugan, she could tell from some distance away. The Byakugan, when activated, caused the veins and arteries around the eyes to bulge. Both Hyuuga sisters had grave expressions on their faces as they examined Sanami. Hinata was reporting what she saw to Shizune, who was looking over the medical chart, her expression growing sadder by the moment.

"No evidence of a baby, you said?"

"No. I see evidence of the placenta, but even it is gone."

"But there's still a mass," Hanabi said. "It's just not alive, not in the same sense. There's no heartbeat. No chakra network."

"I know what kind of mass it is," Hinata said, her voice trembling. "It's not strictly alive. But it's part of her."

"That's what I was afraid of," Shizune said. "The more I looked at this, the more convinced I became."

"What is it?" Kankurou demanded.

"There's no easy way to say this, Kankurou-san: your wife is suffering, and probably dying, from cervical cancer. She likely miscarried long ago, several months even. The reason she still appeared pregnant is that the mass is situated down low and is preventing some of the fluids from escaping."

Kankurou made a noise that sounded very much like a strangled sob. Gaara put a hand on his brother's shoulder in silent support.

"Cancer?" The Kazekage said. "That wasn't something I considered. She seems too young for it. Especially of the reproductive organs."

"Cancer can strike at any age. It usually strikes older, but it's not unheard-of at all for someone her age to die of it. Especially considering her mother and grandmother both died of ovarian cancer," Shizune said, glancing through the medical history, "this isn't a surprise at all. I'm sorry, Kankurou-san."

Sanami made a soft whimpering noise.

"Is there nothing we can do?" Sakura pleaded. She couldn't bear to see that bright young woman brought so low, especially seeing how much she was adored by her husband.

Shizune smiled sadly; "There is a silver-lining to this dark cloud, yes, but it's risky. It requires a lot of time and insane amounts of chakra, which means we have to hope no one attacks, because we're going to need Naruto-kun."

Sakura looked at her sempai expectantly. Shizune sighed as she put the chart down. "Sanami, I can't save your uterus. No matter what happens, you'll never bear children. Best case scenario would be that you'll return to health, but you'll be barren. Worst case scenario, you die. Not even Tsunade-sama could save your uterus. Frankly, I won't be able to save you myself, nor will Sakura. Whatever happens, if you are to survive, we'll need to take you back to Konoha. But there's a pretty good chance even Tsunade-sama can't save you. If the cancer has spread to your liver, your kidneys or any of your other vital organs, there's nothing we can do."

"Fair enough," Sanami wheezed. "So what can you do?"

"Well, I can't guarantee this will work, since I've never done it before, but I think I can do it with Sakura and the Hyuuga sisters' help. Hanabi and Hinata can guide me, and I can probably break down that tumor into pieces, and Sakura can probably remove it. That will buy you some time and some comfort, _if the cancer has not spread_. We won't know if it's spread until we get that tumor out of there and flush it out. It's going to be a long process, and it's going to take a lot of chakra."

One of the other patients coughed violently, and Sakura stiffened; "Oh my god, I forgot! I have to figure out an antidote for that one jounin or he'll be in trouble!"

"Let me do it," Ino said. "I've trained like crazy these past five years, you know. I can't diagnose as well as you, but I can mix a good antidote. I know plants better than you, after all. Just tell me what you figured out from it, and I'll get to work on it."

"Go ahead, there are certainly other patients here." Shizune said. "And for what it's worth, I sent word yesterday to Tsunade-sama to dispatch the backup team, before we even were within sight of Sunagakure. I just had a bad feeling and I'll feel a lot better with Gai and Kakashi around. If we're lucky, they'll be here in two days, and Yumiya can work her 'magic' on the medicinal plants here."

_Slam!_ The building shook with the impact of something heavy hitting the ground, and then a small earthquake shook the village. Gaara groaned and went to one knee, hands at his temples, face folded in strain.

"What the hell was that?" Kankurou was on his feet in a flash and flickered to the nearest window. "Holy fuck!"

"The sand shield," Gaara said, his voice heavy with strain. "It just went up. Something is attacking us."

* * *

**Coming soon: "Part Four: Last of the Uchihas" wherein Sakura, Lee and Naruto finally come face-to-face with Sasuke**

* * *

**END NOTES: Terminology, for those who are a bit rusty:  
**"**Geji-mayu**" is what Naruto calls Rock Lee. It translates as "fuzzy eyebrows" or as the English dub anime calls it, "Bushy Brow" and is Naruto's nickname for Lee. He doesn't mean anything rude by it, and Lee doesn't seem to mind.  
**Hitai-ate** are the "forehead protectors" (headbands) worn by all shinobi with symbols of their home village. Because they can be worn anywhere, or not worn at all, I have chosen to use the untranslated word rather than the term "forehead protector" or "headband"  
The word "**Sabaku**" in Gaara's name, written as it is with the kanji that it is, actually means Sand Waterfall, though there is a homonym (using different kanji/kana) that means desert -- hence the standard translation of "Sabaku no Gaara" as "Gaara of the Desert"  
A **kunoichi** is a female ninja. It is often used in the series as a synonym for ninja or shinobi, when talking about a female. Thus it's used here sporadically much as it is in the series.  
A _**kekkei genkai**_ is, basically, a "bloodline limit" -- refering to a talent or trait that is passed down genetically. The Sharingan and the Byakugan are the two most well-known _kekkei genkai_ in this series. 

**Hidden Villages:**  
**Konohagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Leaves" is the principle village of the Land of Fire (Hi no Kuni), and is headed by the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade.  
**Sunagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Sand" is the principle village of the Land of Wind (Kaze no Kuni), and is headed by the Godaime Kazekage, Gaara.  
**Kirigakure**: "The Hidden Village of Mist" is the principle village of the Land of Water (Mizu no Kuni), and is headed by the Mizukage.  
**Iwagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Rocks" is the principle village of the Land of Earth (Tsuchi no Kuni), and is headed by the Tsuchikage.  
**Kumogakure**: "The Hidden Village of Clouds" is the principle village of the Land of Lightning (Rai no Kuni), and is headed by the Raikage.

**Gaara's Attack names:**  
**Gokusamaisou** literally means "Prison Sand Burial" and has not yet been translated in the English dub, since it hasn't shown up yet  
**Ryuusa Bakuryuu** literally means "Quicksand Waterfall" and has not yet been translated in the English dub, since it hasn't shown up yet  
**Sabaku Kyuu** literally means "Desert Coffin" though the English dub calls it "Sand Coffin"  
**Sabaku Sousou** literally means "Desert Funeral" though the English dub calls it "Sand Burial"  
**Sabaku Taisou** literally means "Desert Imperial Funeral" and has not yet been translated in the English dub, since it hasn't shown up yet

**Honorific suffixes, for those who are rusty:  
****-chan** is used mostly towards females, and indicates a long-term, close friendship. Generally one only uses it for someone one has known since childhood. From the outset in the canon story, Naruto has always referred to Sakura as Sakura-chan.  
**-dono** is an antiquated suffix that is less formal than _-sama_ but more formal than _-san_. It is often used to express either submission (when used in place of _-san_) or equality (when used in place of _-sama_). In this story, Tsunade uses _-dono_ toward Gaara to indicate their equality in ranks.  
**-kun** is used mostly towards males that are younger. It is a more informal, if you will, form of _-san_, but less intimate than _-chan_. It can be used towards girls, but is not usually.  
**-obaachan** is used to address someone who is much older. In this context, "baa" essentially means "Honorable old woman." It's sometimes translated as "granny" but is actually very respectful, as long as the addressee doesn't mind being referred to as an old woman. The male equivalent is "_-ojiichan_"  
**-oneesan** is used to address a woman who is older than you and with whom you have a relatively close, familial bond, though blood relations aren't necessary. The word "nee" means older sister, "san" is a respectful suffix, and "o" is a modifier that adds respect to the word. Thus, saying "Temari-oneesan" is like saying "Big Sister Temari-san." The male equivalent is "_-oniisan._" Hanabi and Hinata use this with Neji, who is their cousin, to show their blood relation. An alternative, showing more affection, would be "_-(o)niichan_" like Konohamaru uses with Naruto, or "_-oneechan_" like Naruto uses with many older kunoichi  
**-sama** is used to express great respect and humility.  
**-san** is the most generic and safest suffix to use.  
**-sempai** is used to address a superior within an organization. Rather like "brothers" or "sisters" within a cult or coven. Roughly this can mean "senior" versus "junior." This is the "big brother/big sister" term. Its counterpart is "_-kouhai_" but isn't used nearly as much, because calling someone "-kouhai" can be taken as offensive or demeaning if you're not careful.  
**-sensei** is used to address a teacher, instructor, or an expert in a particular art. Also, _-sensei_ is used to address doctors.  
**-shishou** is used to address one's master in a particular art, such as martial arts, or in the case of Sakura, in the healing arts.  
(paraphrased and interpreted from source: Wikipedia's entry on "Japanese Titles" http://en.


	5. Part Four: Last of the Uchihas

**Author's Note**: As stated in the prologue and first chapter, this is set way out from the start of the series, and is so far based on about chapter 360 of the manga, no further, since that's where the manga was when I started this project. Therefore, it's probably AU. Refer to the Author's Note in the first chapter for more details. As you will see later in this chapter, in this story's universe, Sasuke has not yet returned to Konoha and is still considered "at large" and for all practical intents and purposes, the Akatsuki is disbanded or destroyed.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own any part of "Naruto" or its characters. It all belongs to the incomparable Masashi Kishimoto-sensei. I'm just playing in the sandbox of this amazing world.

**Warning**: Coarse language. There is fighting in this chapter, not to mention potty-mouthed Yumiya. Expect F-bombs and other profanity or expletives. You dun been warned.

* * *

_"The flower which blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all." --proverb from "Mulan"_

_"Don't think that I don't hurt at all, don't think that this doesn't wrench my soul. Don't think that I don't need your love, but don't think that I'll stand for this anymore." --Skye Pixton, "Don't Wait For Me"_

* * *

**"The Flower in Adversity"  
Part Four: Last of the Uchihas**

"Holy shit, Naruto, stop sniffing through the Kazekage's desk!" Kiba gaped at Naruto, who was poking around the large oak desk.

"I'm not, I'm just... trying to imagine Gaara sitting at this thing for hours doing paperwork!"

Shikamaru scoffed loudly and tossed a shuriken at Naruto, bouncing it off the blond jounin's chaotic mop of yellow hair. "Stop snooping, alright? I don't care how good of friends you think you are with him, that's not nice. I can't see Kazekage-sama taking kindly to you snooping through his desk; that's private property. Behave yourself, eh? Hokage-sama will probably ream _me_ a new one for you being a dumbass and causing a diplomatic incident."

"Don't talk about Gaara like you know him, Nakimushi-kun," Temari said tiredly. "Gaara doesn't keep anything of personal value in that desk. The desk itself is largely empty. There are quills, ink pots and blank scrolls. That's about it. He doesn't even bother with blotting sand. Anything else of personal value is in his private suite. However," she added when she spied Naruto sticking his tongue out at Shikamaru, "all the same, have some respect for personal property, you idiot. Gaara may or may not care if you're being nosy, especially at a time like this, but Baki will flip his shit if he catches you."

"I wonder what is keeping Gaara-sama," Lee mused. "He should be here by now."

_Slam!_ The impact shook the building vigorously.

"What the hell was that?" Shikamaru was the one to give voice to everyone's thoughts. Two heartbeats later, Neji activated his Byakugan and started searching for the source of the noise.

Temari summoned her giant fan, but kept it closed up at present.

"Holy..." Neji involuntarily blinked. "That is one _big _frog."

"Frog?"

"It looks like the frog I've seen you summon before, Naruto, but a lot bigger."

"Bigger than Gamakichi? Then there's only one toad it could be! It's got to be the toad boss!" Naruto exclaimed joyously. "It's Gamabunta! And you know what that means!"

"Uh, no, I don't think we do," Chouji said. "You're talking in another language, Naruto."

"There's only one other person alive who has enough chakra and a toad contract to summon Gamabunta! The Ero-sennin!" Naruto went to a window and popped it open. "I'm gonna go say hello, he has to have a reason to be here!"

"Naruto-kun!" Lee lunged for him, but wasn't quick enough. Naruto climbed out the window and, using his immense chakra and control over said chakra, he walked up the vertiginous dome of the building to the top deck.

"Stupid impulsive idiot," Neji ranted softly. "I'll go get him. You stay here, Lee."

The long-haired jounin clambered out the window and spider-crawled his way to a point where he could stand up and follow Naruto. He had just reached where Naruto was perched on the railing on the balcony at the top of the dome when the sand wall that flowed around Sunagakure caved and admitted a gargantuan reddish-brown toad. A small cluster of passengers could be seen riding on the giant toad's back, headed by a very recognizable white-haired figure.

"Jiraiya you owe me big time for this," the toad grumped unhappily as he shook the sand off. "Don't think you'll ever get away with doing that again!"

"Ero-sennin!" Naruto bellowed. "What brings you here?"

"Get me the fuck off this giant moving health-hazard!" A female voice shrilled as a black-haired kunoichi flung herself off the toad's back. It was Narita Yumiya. "Fuck but I hate frogs!"

"What the hell is the backup team doing here already?" Naruto's jaw dropped open. "We haven't even sent word that we need them!"

Kakashi, Yamato and Gai also dropped off Gamabunta's giant back, but there was another person besides Jiraiya sitting on the toad.

"Tenten?" Neji's forehead wrinkled. "How'd she manage to get assigned? Hey! Naruto, don't be so -- " Too late, Neji realized immediately, as Naruto just catapulted himself off the railing and somersaulted through the air. "Dumbass, that's a fatal fall distance if you don't land just right. Even the Kyuubi can't protect you if you break your goddamn neck!"

Of course, Naruto was agile as a fox, so he landed just fine. Neji muttered under his breath that he was racking up more and more bad points with various scary kunoichi. It was bad enough trying to keep Lee from doing stupid stuff, but if he had to look after Naruto too, there was no way he'd be able to prevent something from setting Sakura off at him. And if something happened to Naruto, he'd have Tsunade and Shizune breathing fire down his neck too.

_Never thought I'd be so relieved to see Gai-sensei show up. And Kakashi as well; if anyone can keep Naruto in line, it's him._

He was just about to try hopping to a window ledge down lower, when he felt a flare of chakra somewhere in the distance. Ultraviolet, angry, hateful chakra. The force of the malevolence of this chakra stunned Neji and interrupted his concentration. Gracelessly, the jounin slipped and fell down the side of the giant building, still too stunned to be aware of what was happening. Distantly, he heard someone shout his name, and he knew he was falling, but he couldn't respond.

_Am I going to die?_ He wondered fuzzily. _Sachiko won't like that._

"Neji, you idiot, what the hell was that about?"

He snapped back to consciousness to find himself laying on the ground, apparently unhurt. He was surrounded by Konoha jounin, though Kankurou's spiked mess of mahogany hair was visible just behind Kakashi's shoulder, near the building.

"What happened?" He sat up abruptly, shaking his head dizzily.

"You looked like you got stunned by something and fell; Kankurou managed to catch you with a chakra-net," Naruto said. "What were you doing?"

"Neji, what happened to you? You've never been so careless!" Tenten scolded. "If I have to tell your fiancée that you've died, I'm going to kill you all over again!"

"You felt that evil chakra, didn't you," a calm voice said from behind the cluster of jounin, who parted for the speaker. It was Jiraiya. "I felt it too."

"What was it? It felt like..."

"Frankly, it felt like Orochimaru's aura," Jiraiya said, "but that's not possible. So I can only assume that it was the very reason why I came here myself."

This got everyone's attention, even the backup team's. Jiraiya smiled dryly. "Come on, do you think I'd really summon Gamabunta just to give you kids a speedy ride to Sunagakure for anything other than a major incident?"

"So, the mass-genocide of sixty or seventy percent of my population isn't a major incident?" Gaara said coldly from a nearby doorway.

"No offense, Kazekage-sama," Jiraiya said with a chuckle, "but that's your business. This incident, however, is Konoha's problem."

"How so?" Gaara inquired before anyone else could.

Jiraiya's carefree exterior disappeared in a heartbeat. "I have reliable intelligence passed through the ninja-frogs that your village was betrayed to Kirigakure and Kumogakure by none other than Uchiha Sasuke."

"_What?!_" The response was loud because it came from so many throats.

"He is nearby, I'm certain of it," Jiraiya added. "I'll even wager he's been nearby for a long time, waiting for the moment to strike. Word is he thinks he has a score to settle with you, Gaara."

"Well," Gaara said, his eyes narrowing, "I now have a score to settle with him. If he wanted to fight me, he could have come here and challenged me. He did not need to involve my village and all the innocent people herein in his petty plot of vengeance."

"This is our problem, Gaara. Please let us handle it."

"This is my village, and if that rogue steps one foot inside Sunagakure, I will unleash everything I have on him. He will learn that even without Shukaku, I can raise a sandstorm if I must."

"That shouldn't be necessary," Kakashi said. "Hokage-sama has dispatched everyone capable of having an influence on Sasuke; she also dispatched Tenten here to help bolster your number of fighters, in case several of us have to engage Sasuke at once."

Gaara swayed suddenly, and went to one knee in fatigue. Kankurou was at his brother's side in an instant.

"Damned shield. Clearly it's not a finished technique, not if it's leaking chakra like a broken pipe," the Kazekage muttered as his brother helped him back to his feet. "I need to take it down, I can't maintain this." He brought his hands together and began making a complex series of hand seals.

"Is everything okay down there?" Shizune called out a window.

"Other than the Hyuuga genius stupidly falling on his ass? Just fine!" Yumiya hollered back. Shizune had just withdrawn back into the room when the shout came at her, and she poked her head out the window again.

"What are you guys doing here so fast?! I sent word just yesterday to Hokage-sama!"

"Jiraiya-sama gave us a ride," Yumiya yelled back. "That frog can really haul ass, but damn, I think I left my stomach somewhere between the borders."

"I'm a toad, damn you," Gamabunta hissed. "Show some respect or I'll flatten you."

"Now, now," Jiraiya held his hands up to the toad. "That's just how she is, you know. Her totem animal is the tiger, after all."

"Are you done with me yet?" The cranky toad grumbled.

"I'm afraid not. Please bear with me on this, Gamabunta."

The ground heaved and shook as the sand wall around the village began to disintegrate.

"I owe you a series of violent blows to the head, Gaara," Kankurou growled. "You're being a fucking asshole, you know."

"Spare me the commentary," the Kazekage snapped. "I'm doing what I have to in order to save the village, like I'm supposed to."

"At the cost of your own health, you ass," the puppeteer retorted. "What the fuck are we supposed to do if you die now on us?"

Naruto approached the two and put his hands firmly on Gaara's shoulders; "Hang on a sec, Gaara. I need to get this stupid fox to behave, and then you'll have plenty of chakra." After a few moments, fiery-red chakra began pouring from his hands into the Kazekage.

"Tell me when you've got enough," Naruto said. "I've got plenty to spare, so just tell me when to stop."

"_I'll_ tell you when to stop," a voice commanded imperiously from overhead. "Stop right now."

"No," Gaara said softly, before Naruto could look up, "I don't have enough yet to fight him." The other jounin exploded into motion even as Gaara restrained Naruto. "Please. I have to protect this village, and I was foolish enough to erect a faulty shield. I know it is asking a lot, but I need more chakra if I am to protect my village."

Naruto bit his lip in concentration and mentally slapped the lazy Kyuubi, forcing it to increase the flow of chakra. "That didn't sound like Sasuke," he said with clenched jaws.

"It's a fucking Mist-nin," Kankurou growled. "I saw the hitai-ate. How he got past the shield is beyond me."

A kunai whistled through the air, and would have struck Naruto in the back, right through the heart, had Gaara's automatic defenses, courtesy of his raccoon familiar, not spiraled up and blocked the blow.

"Fucking hell!" Kankurou blurted, grabbing one of his puppet scrolls and pulling out one of his own creations, an unnamed and unfinished battle puppet. A barrage of kunai rained down on them, but the puppet emitted a chakra-shield that deflected the weapons.

Finally, Gaara tapped Naruto's elbows as a signal. The jounin backed away, and Gaara wasted no time. Raising a column of sand, he lifted himself up to the level of the attacker. Naruto grabbed a kunai from his holster, but before anyone could do anything, Gaara's sand surrounded the Mist-nin and crushed him in a shower of blood and bone-fragments.

"Tacky but effective," Shikamaru drolled. "And efficient."

"There are more coming," Gaara called down. "They're coming through the front gate." He sent a javelin of sand lancing through the air in the direction of the attackers.

Gai stopped Lee when the younger jounin started in the direction of the attack. "No, Lee, don't go to them. Let them come to you. Stay close to this building. Keep the advantage."

"But, Gai-sensei -- "

"Listen to me, Lee. You can't be reckless. We're dealing with Mist-nin, here. Taijutsu alone won't work against them if you go charging into their midst. Without ninjutsu, you're at a disadvantage, no matter how you look at it. You need to use your head and outsmart them. And," he added urgently, "don't bother with the Gates. You used them once before in Kirigakure; those ninja will know about you and that you use them, and they'll turn it against you. Trust me on this one, Lee, you don't mess with Mist-nin with just taijutsu. Follow my lead. If something happens to you, I have to answer to not only Hokage-sama, but also Kazekage-sama, and your wife." He left it open-ended, indicating that any one of those three could be frightening if provoked.

A wave of sand surged forward and swung around them, blocking the attack of a Mist-nin who had popped up out of nowhere. Gai yelped in surprise, taken aback at having been caught off guard.

"Gai, quit fucking around and get your ass in gear!" Yumiya hollered, spinning a kunai through the air at him. He caught it and used it to stab another Mist-nin who also appeared out of nowhere.

Lee blinked owlishly, before the surge of adrenaline inherent in a fight took over his senses. Mindful of Gai's warning, he kept his back close to the building and fought defensively. Neji and Tenten soon joined him and expanded the circle of defense around the doorway to the building. The join-up of teammates freed Gai to work offensively against the Mist-nin, and he, Yumiya and Kakashi traded off with their respective specialties -- taijutsu, genjutsu and ninjutsu -- to round up the Kirigakure attackers and herd them closer to where Shikamaru could pin them motionless with Kagemane Shuriken, maximizing the hit potential of Kiba and Akamaru's Gatsuuga and Naruto's Rasengan.

One Mist-nin escaped the herding effort and charged directly at Gaara, a short stabbing blade in hand. Gaara seemed unruffled, but his sand defense was sluggish and only managed to impede the attack rather than block it. Lee flashed in and blocked the strike, sending the blade spinning harmlessly away, while the green-clothed jounin pounded the stunned Kiri ninja with rapid-fire blows. Kankurou swung his puppet in to finish off the would-be assassin.

Another assassin tried to sneak up on them, but Kakashi nailed him with Raikiri.

Fifteen minutes of mad scrambling passed from the onslaught of the attack before the last Mist-nin fell to a blow from a Konoha ninja. When the dust cleared, Neji had a cut on his arm, Naruto's face was criss-crossed with nicks that were already starting to heal, and Yumiya looked haggard. Kakashi hadn't even uncovered his Sharingan for this fight, and Gai hadn't used any other weapons than the one kunai Yumiya had thrown at him.

Jiraiya dusted his hands off as he piled the last of the bodies up; "Well, well, that was eventful."

Gaara made no comment to that as he lifted a cloud of sand and hopped onto it. "I'm going to patrol the perimeter, see what kind of damage has been done. Kankurou, keep an eye on the building."

"Er, right," the puppeteer said. The Kazekage didn't bother to respond to the answer before he disappeared beyond the buildings.

There was a slamming sound as Temari planted the butt of her fan into the ground and keeled forward, coughing and retching. She was breathing hard anyway, and now she appeared to be at her limit.

"Temari-san!" Lee was closest and reached a hand to her, to help her up, but she batted his hand away.

"Stay away from me!" She wheezed. "I could be contagious! I didn't think it was this bad, but when the Mist-nin got close, I couldn't do anything. My lungs feel like they're going to implode in my chest. I can barely breathe."

Kankurou scooped Temari up into his arms. "I knew you were coming down with this. We'd better get the healers to look at you now. I'm not going to lose my sister too, goddammitall."

"Did I hear right?" Shikamaru asked of Kakashi and Jiraiya. "Did you say Sasuke's nearby?"

"I'm pretty sure he is. He's been deliberately elusive, but I get the feeling we'll be seeing him now."

"Great." Shikamaru sounded angry. "Just what we need."

"Why do you think Hokage-sama sent a larger second contingent?" Yumiya said as she braced herself against Gai and scrubbed antiseptic on a small wound on her leg. "Truth be known, I don't wanna fight no fucking Uchiha. But if anyone thinks I'm gonna back down if Gai's not afraid of taking him on, they got another fucking think comin'."

Kakashi looked at Naruto, who was rubbing his shoulders wearily. "Naruto, did you ever find out what happened to Konohamaru?"

"Yeah. He's fine. He got sick, but he got over it. He's been helping Gaara's chief advisor take care of the sick."

"Oh good. Hikaru-kun and Kurenai will be relieved. As will Udon and Moegi, and Ebisu."

"Oi! Ero-sennin, where did Gamabunta go?"

"I released him when the Mist-nin attacked. He would have probably done some serious structural damage, and those ninjas were no match for us all. Though," he added, "I have to admit they were cleverer than I expected. A three-pronged attack on the Kazekage, and they nearly bypassed his automatic defense. Not bad. He would have been pretty severely injured if we hadn't stepped in."

As they filed into the building, following Kankurou and Temari, Lee rubbed his shoulders tiredly. "I am glad that you came, Gai-sensei."

"Not half as glad as I am, kid," Gai said, ruffling his hair. "Knowing you, you would've attempted to throw open a couple of Gates." Then he clapped an arm strongly onto Lee's shoulders and grinned. "I'm proud of you, Lee! Look at you, you did exactly as I asked, and you didn't get a scratch on you. Yumiya can't claim that!"

"Fuck off, Gai!" came the predictable retort from ahead. "Not everyone can fall into a pile of horseshit and come out smelling of roses like you can!"

"Also, not everyone is as reckless as you," Yamato ribbed. "You fight like a berserker, you know."

"Kiss my ass, sempai!"

Lee heaved a sigh; "She is... trying at times."

Gai laughed heartily. "She is, but she's a good reliable partner. And her genjutsu has gotten us out of a number of tight scrapes. Plus, no matter where you are or how long you're stuck there, you'll never starve to death if you're with her; she can make edible plants grow out of solid rock."

"Can't cook for shit, though!" Yamato added with a grin, and ducked as Yumiya threw a punch at him.

Lee chuckled; "Sakura is a rather lousy cook too. Her riceballs always fall apart, and she can never get the curry right."

"Pfft!" Naruto scoffed. "Sakura-chan can bake a mean loaf of bread, though! And she makes some pretty wicked odango! Yumiya-oneechan can't even do those two things."

"Oi, fox-boy, shut your whiskered face before I punch it!" Yumiya growled, without real rancor. She was likely the only person who could get away with referring to Naruto's bijuu, the Kyuubi -- the nine-tailed fox spirit sealed inside him -- because her clan was probably the only Konoha clan unaffected by the Kyuubi. The Narita clan lived outside the physical borders of Konoha because of disagreements with the Sandaime Hokage. They were still considered part of Konohagakure, because they sent their progeny to the Academy and occasionally their better-talented offspring (like Yumiya) ended up in ANBU, but they didn't live within the boundaries of Konohagakure, and so the Kyuubi, when it had attacked, had never passed by their tiny pseudo-village. Thus, Yumiya hadn't been directly affected by the Nine-Tails, and so she meant nothing untoward by calling Naruto "fox-boy" -- she insisted that she did so because of the "whisker" markings on his cheeks rather than because of the vulpine creature sealed inside him anyway.

Kankurou barged into the infirmary without a knock, startling Konohamaru.

Over by the far window, four of the healers were concentrating on one patient. Baki was rotating pans of water, which Sakura was using as adhesive for whatever she was extracting. Shizune looked like a huge vein in her forehead was about to burst from exertion. Hanabi guided Shizune's hands while Hinata guided Sakura's.

"What are they doing?" Kakashi inquired, looking pointedly at Kankurou. "You came through that window over there, so clearly you were in this room when we arrived. What's going on?"

Kankurou deposited Temari on a bed, his face strained. "Sanami is dying of cancer. They're trying to remove the tumor to buy her some time." His voice trembled.

"Cancer?" Temari's eyes widened. "_That's_ what's been plaguing her? Is _that_ what this plague is?"

"No; Cancer isn't a plague, because it isn't contagious in that manner," Ino said from where she stood beside another bed, reading a medical chart. "But I don't think this is strictly a plague either. Most of these are combination cases. Shikamaru, do you remember that time Hokage-sama sent us to Takigakure about five years ago?"

"How could I forget?" Shikamaru said, rubbing his neck uncomfortably. "That was... horrible. I had trouble eating for a week afterwards. Even Chouji lost some weight from lack of appetite."

"Exactly. In a matter of days, an entire Hidden Village was completely obliterated. In a matter of days, an entire village of ninjas and civilians died horrific deaths of disease. This is similar somehow."

"Organic plagues don't happen that abruptly," Yumiya said. "I remember investigating that one after you kids got home. That was a plague triggered by poison. Aburame Shibi confirmed that one, because his bugs could perform a better autopsy than any human can."

"Plague triggered by poison?" Kankurou looked over at her sharply. "Explain that."

"Easy: a dormant virus or bacteria was introduced into their bodily systems -- likely through their drinking water -- and was allowed to sit undetected for a long time. Then a mild poison was introduced into the same source -- like I said, likely the drinking water -- and the poison triggered the virus or bacteria to come out of dormancy. Kirigakure is capable of that kind of tactic. We deduced that Takigakure was obliterated by Kirigakure."

"Careful, Sakura-san! That piece is still attached!" Hanabi said sharply. "Nee-san, can you lance it from where you are?"

Hinata made a short stabbing motion, and there was a sharp moan from the patient. "Careful!" Shizune barked. "Naruto-kun! I think we need more chakra, please. This is taking a lot out of us."

"Geez, is that all I'm here for?" Naruto muttered, but still complied. He put one hand on Sakura's shoulder, and the other on Shizune's, giving each a jolt of raw chakra from the Kyuubi.

Ino began inspecting Temari, jotting notes down on the chart. The room fell eerily silent except for the occasional moan from one of the patients or the hushed whispers of some of the ninja conversing quietly amongst themselves. Konohamaru approached Yumiya and informed her in a hushed tone that she was needed in the greenhouse. The kunoichi grumbled but followed him out of the infirmary.

Time seemed to fracture and then come to a grinding halt, as if falling apart at the seams. At one point, Kankurou climbed out the window he'd gone through earlier, this time to catch Gaara as the Kazekage passed by, to keep him informed.

For what felt like days, Shizune and Sakura methodically broke down and extracted the tumor from Sanami's uterus. The sun was slung low in the western sky by the time Shizune leaned back, breathing heavily and wiping sweat from her brow.

"That's the last of it."

"Got it," Sakura said triumphantly as she extracted the last fragment of malignant mass through a small incision in Sanami's abdomen. She deposited the watery mess into a bowl held out by Baki. "That was a beast to grab hold of. Had to be at least ten times harder than that time I pulled the poison out of Kankurou-san."

"That's because this wasn't a foreign substance," Shizune said tiredly as she stretched her limbs wearily. "It's something Sanami-san's body created itself. It's a part of her, but a part of her that was slowly killing her. It was hard to separate the tumor from the living tissues because you have to analyze them on a molecular level; it's counterproductive to excise off healthy tissue when removing diseased tissue. Um, Baki-dono, I think I'm going to be passing out here. Don't be alarmed, just don't let me hit my head -- "

Shizune didn't even get a chance to finish the sentence before fatigue and complete chakra exhaustion overwhelmed her. Hanabi and Hinata managed to catch her before she hit the ground, though they were both extremely low on chakra as well and could just barely hold her up between the two of them. Sakura slumped against the wall, barely able to keep her eyes open. Lee wordlessly scooped her up into his arms, cradling her tenderly against his chest. She sighed with relief and contentment as she snuggled her head against the curve of his neck and dropped into a brief, exhausted sleep.

Baki picked up Shizune and deposited her on a nearby bed. "You two should go get some sleep," he said to the Hyuuga sisters. "Kankurou, being that they're sisters, they can probably share a bed without issue, and yours is the largest one available."

"Understood," Kankurou said without the slightest hesitation. He strode over meaningfully and grasped each sister's arm, gently levering them up off the floor. "Come along, ladies. Allow me to escort you. I'll remind you to pay the puppets on the walls no mind; they're harmless right now."

"Ne, Ino," Chouji sidled up to his teammate. "What's the diagnosis here?"

"Move over, tubby," Ino said peevishly, hip-bumping him away. She and Shikamaru were the only two able to get away with that nickname for Chouji; anyone else, even Hanabi, calling him that would have gotten a violent angry reaction from him. "I'm still working on a diagnosis."

Temari coughed feebly and groaned. "Now I'm a burden too on Gaara. That's the last thing I ever wanted to be."

Lee braced himself against the wall, centering his and Sakura's weight as squarely over his center of gravity as he could. He'd mastered that technique here in Suna, and had polished it after he'd become a jounin: how to center himself so absolutely on his feet that even Gai-sensei couldn't knock him off his feet with brute force alone.

_I cannot do much for you in the state you are in, Sakura,_ he thought as he looked down at her, _but I can hold you and protect you._

Naruto put a hand on Sakura's shoulder, injecting some blue-tinted chakra -- some of his own chakra, rather than the Kyuubi's chakra -- into the medic-nin. "I'll never get over how amazing Sakura-chan has become." His ultramarine eyes darkened slightly. "Did you hear the Ero-sennin's news, Geji-mayu?"

"What news?"

"Ero-sennin thinks that this whole fiasco was caused by Sasuke. He has intelligence that points towards Sasuke betraying Sunagakure's weaknesses to Kirigakure."

"That does not make sense. How could Sasuke-kun betray a village that does not trust him?"

"We don't know how long Sasuke's been hanging around Suna," Kakashi said, approaching. "There were rumors of him milling around here for months before I came here some six months ago, you remember. He might have made a lot of informed assumptions on his own."

"That makes no sense at all."

"Remember who it was who killed Itachi," Gai said. "Sasuke's got to have a rock in his craw about that."

Lee blinked slowly; "I recall hearing that Uchiha Itachi's body was discovered in Sunagakure's vicinity. I do not recall hearing who it was who actually killed him."

"Well, according to Jiraiya-sama, Itachi was crushed to death by a cocoon of sand," Kakashi said. "You get three guesses, Lee-kun. And if you guess wrong, I'll know you're completely moronic, since you're the only person to survive that attack."

Sakura shifted in Lee's arms and sighed. "What's the matter?" She murmured.

"Jiraiya-sama seems to think Sasuke-kun is responsible for this catastrophe," Lee said, even as Gai, Kakashi and Naruto all frantically tried to gesture for him to keep his silence.

Sakura didn't respond for at least thirty seconds. "Really? Weird." Then she dozed off again.

"You did not expect me to lie to her, did you?" Lee arched his eyebrows at Gai in particular, but indicating Kakashi and Naruto in his statement.

"You delight in raking Sasuke through the coals, don't you?" Kakashi said dangerously.

"I do not. She deserves to know. Besides, I do not believe Jiraiya-sama's information is correct, and I will continue to disbelieve it until I am proven wrong."

"Rock Lee-san," Baki said. "Perhaps you should take your wife to the suite Kazekage-sama has offered you. I think you both will rest better there. I will send for you if either of you are needed."

Lee nodded and started toward the door to the infirmary, Sakura cradled safely in his arms.

_SLAM!_ the whole building shook with the acute impact. A lamp on the ceiling came loose and crashed to the ground just centimeters away from Lee.

"What the hell?" Naruto spun around in alarm. "What now?"

Kankurou body-flickered to the window. "Fuck! Who the hell now?"

"What is it, Kankurou?"

"Gaara's fighting someone hand-to-hand. And that someone has the upper hand I think!"

Kakashi had gone two shades paler.

"Who is it? Kankurou, who is it?" Naruto demanded.

"Kakashi, what's the matter?" Gai demanded at the same moment.

"Chidori," the Copy-nin said softly, his eye as wide as it could go. "I can hear Chidori."

There was a long pause as that sunk in to everyone. There were only two people in the world who could use Chidori.

Naruto put to voice what everyone thought: "It's Sasuke!"

* * *

Gaara backflipped away from his assailant, trying to swing an arm of sand up to wrap around the missing-nin. 

"That won't work, you desert rat," Uchiha Sasuke taunted. "I've got you now. I've waited ten years to kill you."

"Why did you drag my village into this?" Gaara demanded. "If you have a bone to pick with me, you should target me, and me alone. You shouldn't drag my village into this."

"I don't recall killing any of your useless people. You're my target; I could care less about your stupid village. You foolishly abandoned your village just as the other three villages closed in on you. It's your fault your people have died."

Gaara slammed his palms together. _I didn't want to have to use this in mid-air, but I need to stop him_. He began forming the seals, pooling the chakra beneath his feet and channeling it down the spiral into the sand in the ground."**Ryuusa bakuryuu.**"

"That attack won't work on me, you redheaded freak," Sasuke taunted, punching right through the wave that soared up from the ground. "You couldn't handle the weakest of the Akatsuki, and I managed to kill the strongest. I'll have you know I killed Deidara and Itachi. Of course, no thanks to you that I managed to kill Itachi without breaking a sweat, since you crippled him. But Deidara, who defeated you without breaking a sweat himself, died at my hands."

"You talk too much, Uchiha Sasuke. You are worse than that Deidara was." Gaara's eyes narrowed. "You're bold, I'll give you that. You're standing on my sand, which I use to crush limbs."

"You don't scare me, sand-rat." Sasuke's hand sparked with that chakra-rich attack that he had used before on Gaara.

"Sasuke! Stop it!" A voice yelled from the building below.

"Stay out of this, Naruto!" Gaara commanded. "This is between Uchiha Sasuke and myself."

"No, it's not! Sasuke is my responsibility, not yours! Your responsibility is your village. Sasuke is my teammate, and my responsibility."

"Well, well, if it isn't you, Usuratonkachi," Sasuke drawled. "I didn't think you'd still be alive. Still not Hokage, I see."

"Obaachan won't retire until you drag your sorry ass back to Konoha," Naruto snarled, climbing up the spiral of sand. "And I fully intend to do make sure you do just that now that I have you in my sights."

There was a sharp _whoosh_, and a spear of flames came jettisoning toward them.

"Oh, so the Copy-ninja too? Well, I should feel honored," Sasuke split the javelin of flames with his Chidori.

"He is not the only one here to bring you back, Sasuke-kun!" Lee roared as he charged up the spiral of sand as well. "How many can you take on at once?"

"_Shannaro!_" Sakura vaulted over Lee in an orchestrated move, cocking her fist back and letting a chakra-enhanced punch fly. "You asshole, I waited for you for ten years! And this is how you greet us?"

Sasuke dodged the punch and delivered a stunning blow to the small of her back, sending her skidding down the spiral.

An arm of sand emerged and caught her before she hit the ground. "Don't get yourself hurt," Gaara admonished. "You're important to my village right now."

"I have to fight this -- "

"Were you dispatched as a healer or as a fighter?" Gaara interrupted. "Which did Hokage-sama send you as? Behave more like what you were sent to be."

"Stop telling me what to do, Gaara!" Sakura threw a punch in his direction, which was blocked by a tendril of sand. "I've been waiting for ten years for this."

The sand restrained her, "Calm yourself down. There are enough other people to fight him."

A lance of Chidori interrupted them, punching through Gaara's sand wall, causing the Kazekage to throw himself backwards in automatic reaction. Sakura barely had time to get her orientation that she was no longer restrained, before she was grabbed around the shoulders by an arm of flesh and bone.

A sword appeared at her throat.

"Back off, all of you. You don't all back down, and she dies." The blade pressed against her throat.

All movement ceased. Naruto and Lee both looked like they were going to blow their respective stacks. Kakashi and Gai restrained them as best they could.

"I'm only targeting that inhuman monster," Sasuke said, pointing at Gaara. "If the rest of you just back off, there'll be only one casualty. Believe it or not, I don't delight in killing just anyone."

"If you think we're going to stand back and let you kill our Godaime Kazekage, you better fucking think again!" A voice shouted from the infirmary window. "_**KUCHIYOSE: KUROKAGE KEIBA!**_"

"Sanami!" Kankurou hollered back. "What the hell are you doing?!"

A black shadow roared out of the infirmary window, streaking toward Sasuke. The missing-nin snorted. "I wasn't kidding. She's dead now." He drew the blade across Sakura's throat, expecting a fountain of blood. Instead, he got a fountain of sand.

"Good work, Kankurou," Gaara said, forming the sand in his hands into a kunai, stepping in front of Sakura, who he'd managed to pull out of Sasuke's hands with the Kawarimi technique.

"I'll slap Sanami good when this is over, using so much chakra to summon Kurosuna," the puppeteer said as he began to move his fingers, causing the puppet wrapped in Sasuke's arm to respond, encircling the missing-nin. "All for the sake of a distraction."

"**Sunakunai**," Gaara hurled the sand kunai in his hand, pinning the puppet to Sasuke's shoulder.

"You think that'll work on me?" Sasuke growled. "You are such a fool, Gaara. You haven't grown a bit."

"That's what you think," Gaara said with a smirk. "Actually, I learned a lot from my fight with Deidara long ago. _Katsu!_"

The kunai impaled in Sasuke's shoulder exploded as if tagged with an explosive tag.

"I injected that sunakunai with explosive energy. You continue to underestimate me, Uchiha Sasuke."

"And you underestimate me, Sabaku no Baka!" Sasuke cast aside the puppet and launched himself angrily at the Kazekage. "You're out of tricks now -- I've seen them all from you one way or another!"

_Damn, he's probably right. I've used all my techniques recently. Except for one. _Gaara glanced over at Kankurou and nodded his head sharply. Then he reached into his sash and pulled out a large scroll. Wiping a bead of sweat and a dab of saliva across it, he tossed the scroll into the air and made five signs in rapid succession: _Bird, Pig, Bull, Dog, Ram _"_**KUCHIYOSE: SUNA NO TANUKI.**_"

Kankurou gouged out a stream of blood in his hand and slammed it against his puppet. "_**KUCHIYOSE: SABAKU NO NEKO.**_"

Temari, leaning against the infirmary window frame, despite her illness, also bit out a strand of blood and wiped it on her fan: "_**KUCHIYOSE: KIRIKIRI MAI.**_"

"MERGE!" Gaara shouted to the three summoned beasts.

Kurosuna leaped up over the tallest of the three beasts, the giant sand tanuki, landing on its head. "Bad idea, Kazekage-sama. You know you can't really control the merged summoning."

"Shut up, stupid horse!" Kankurou yelled. "He won't be controlling it alone!"

"I guess it's time I showed you my own modification of this jutsu that you saw earlier. I am the last of the Uchiha Clan, and in me is the galvanization of this _kekkei genkai_. I will now show you why. Sabaku no Gaara -- meet Chidori Nagashi!"

* * *

**Coming soon: "Part Five: A Flower of Hope" wherein Lee finally shows the others just what he's made of.**

* * *

**END NOTES: Terminology, for those who are a bit rusty:  
**"**Geji-mayu**" is what Naruto calls Rock Lee. It translates as "fuzzy eyebrows" or as the English dub anime calls it, "Bushy Brow" and is Naruto's nickname for Lee. He doesn't mean anything rude by it, and Lee doesn't seem to mind.  
"**Ero-sennin**" is what Naruto calls Jiraiya. It means "perverted hermit" or as the English dub anime calls it, "Pervy Sage" and is Naruto's nickname for Jiraiya. Jiraiya doesn't particularly like the nickname, but he seems to get used to it.  
"**Gama-sennin**" is what Jiraiya is often called. It means "toad hermit" or as the English dub anime calls it, "Toad Sage"  
"**Nakimushi-kun**" means "Mr. Crybaby" and is what Temari calls Shikamaru, much to his chagrin.  
**Hitai-ate** are the "forehead protectors" (headbands) worn by all shinobi with symbols of their home village. Because they can be worn anywhere, or not worn at all, I have chosen to use the untranslated word rather than the term "forehead protector" or "headband"  
The word "**Sabaku**" in Gaara's name, written as it is with the kanji that it is, actually means Sand Waterfall, though there is a homonym (using different kanji/kana) that means desert -- hence the standard translation of "Sabaku no Gaara" as "Gaara of the Desert"  
A **kunoichi** is a female ninja. It is often used in the series as a synonym for ninja or shinobi, when talking about a female. Thus it's used here sporadically much as it is in the series.  
A _**kekkei genkai**_ is, basically, a "bloodline limit" -- refering to a talent or trait that is passed down genetically. The Sharingan and the Byakugan are the two most well-known _kekkei genkai_ in this series.  
"**Usuratonkachi**" is what Sasuke calls Naruto when he's being derisive. It basically means "idiot" or "clumsy idiot"  
"**Shannaro**" is what Sakura says for emphasis. It generally means "Hell yeah!" or "Dammit!" depending on context.  
"**Katsu**" is a word spoken to bring focus (as demonstrated by Deidara in his fight against Gaara). It also means "Explode" or "Ignite."

**Hidden Villages:**  
**Konohagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Leaves" is the principle village of the Fire Country (Hi no Kuni), and is headed by the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade.  
**Sunagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Sand" is the principle village of the Wind Country (Kaze no Kuni), and is headed by the Godaime Kazekage, Gaara.  
**Kirigakure**: "The Hidden Village of Mist" is the principle village of the Water Country (Mizu no Kuni), and is headed by the Mizukage.  
**Iwagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Rocks" is the principle village of the Earth Country (Tsuchi no Kuni), and is headed by the Tsuchikage.  
**Kumogakure**: "The Hidden Village of Clouds" is the principle village of the Lightning Country (Rai no Kuni), and is headed by the Raikage.  
**Otogakure**: "The Hidden Village of Sound" is Orochimaru's creation. It has no kage.  
**Kusagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Grass"  
**Amegakure**: "The Hidden Village of Rain"  
**Takigakure**: "The Hidden Village of the Waterfall"

**Attack names:**  
**Asa Kujaku** means "Morning Peacock" and has not yet been officially translated into English (used by Gai)  
**Chidori** means "One Thousand Birds" but is largely left untranslated in the dub, beyond the intial translation (used by Kakashi and Sasuke)  
**Chidori Nagashi** means "One Thousand Birds Current" and is currently a manga-only attack (used by Sasuke)  
**Gokusamaisou** literally means "Prison Sand Burial" and has not yet been translated in the English dub, since it hasn't shown up yet (used by Gaara)  
**Omote Renge** means "Front Lotus" or "Initial Lotus" though the English dub calls it the "Primary Lotus" (used by Lee)  
**Raikiri** literally means "thunder cut" or "lightning edge" but is called "Lightning Blade" in the dub (used by Kakashi)  
**Rasengan** literally means "spiraling sphere" but seems to be left largely untranslated in the English dub (used by Jiraiya and Naruto)  
**Ryuusa Bakuryuu** literally means "Quicksand Waterfall" and has not yet been translated in the English dub, since it hasn't shown up yet (used by Gaara)  
**Sabaku Kyuu** literally means "Desert Coffin" though the English dub calls it "Sand Coffin" (used by Gaara)  
**Sabaku Sousou** literally means "Desert Funeral" though the English dub calls it "Sand Burial" (used by Gaara)  
**Sabaku Taisou** literally means "desert imperial funeral" and has not yet been translated in the English dub, since it hasn't shown up yet (used by Gaara)  
**Ura Renge** means "Reverse Lotus" though the English dub calls it the "Hidden Lotus" (used by Lee)  
**Kuchiyose: Kurokage Keiba** ("Summoning: Black Shadow Racehorse") is an invented attack used by Sanami to summon Kurosuna


	6. Part Five: A Flower of Hope

**Author's Note**: As stated in the prologue and first chapter, this is set way out from the start of the series, and is so far based on about chapter 360 of the manga, no further, since that's where the manga was when I started this project. Therefore, it's probably AU. Refer to the Author's Note in the first chapter for more details.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own any part of "Naruto" or its characters. It all belongs to the incomparable Masashi Kishimoto-sensei. I'm just playing in the sandbox of this amazing world.

Also: Under no circumstances am I trying to typecast or stereotype lesbians, or even homosexuals in general, with Yumiya's character. She was developed as an antithesis to most of the kunoichi you see in the story -- I wanted to make her a loud, foul-mouthed and tactless woman with few social graces and a penchant for really coarse language -- and all this was done long before I ever made a decision on her sexual preferences. Hence, her personality is not meant to be a reflection on the fact that she is a lesbian. Her being a lesbian is mostly a plot point to explain her frustration when people try to set her up with Gai.

**Warning**: Coarse language. There is fighting in this chapter, not to mention potty-mouthed Yumiya. Expect F-bombs and other profanity or expletives. You dun been warned.

* * *

_"The flower which blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all." --proverb from "Mulan"_

_"You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains; You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas; I am strong, when I am on your shoulders; You raise me up, to more than I can be." --Brendan Graham, "You Raise Me Up"_

* * *

**"The Flower in Adversity"  
Part Five: A Flower of Hope**

Narita Yumiya swore bitterly under her breath even as she held her hands cupped around a small plant, blood dripping from slices on her fingers and pooling steadily at the base of the plant. The greenhouse plants were responding, slowly. Meanwhile, she could hear fighting going on outside, fighting she firmly believed she should be involved in. She hated this _kekkei genkai_ with a fury. The Naritas were an esteemed clan of precocious herbalists and healers, especially the women. Those who weren't healers or herbalists, excelled in genjutsu. Yumiya was one of those that excelled in both, but unlike most, she hated the healer part of her ability, because it made people look at her as just a kunoichi. Just a woman. The one thing she hated to be viewed as, above all other things.

_I should've been a man, dammit. Maybe I'd actually be able to gain some respect from the other guys then, instead of them just staring at me with those damned googly eyes. Even Gai tends to get jelly-eyed with me. And _he_ isn't afraid to hit me with everything he's got just 'cuz I'm a girl._

Konohamaru stood by the door, looking out, monitoring the fight going on outside the main building. "I can't believe Sasuke has become so evil. He didn't used to be."

"Pfft," Yumiya grunted. "Them Uchihas were all a bunch of fucking crazy psychos. As annoying and arrogant as the Hyuugas are, they never betrayed Konoha. The Uchiha clan has been the fount for a number of dangerous missing-nin. Only thing worse to happen to Konoha than the Uchihas is Orochimaru, and he wasn't part of any clan I know of."

"Doesn't make Sasuke evil, you know," Konohamaru said stiffly.

"I never liked that brat," Yumiya said. "I told Sandaime-sama he shouldn't have given that brat to someone lenient like Kakashi-sempai. Sasuke needed someone stricter, someone who wouldn't hesitate to beat his ass in if he got out of line. Someone like Asuma, maybe, even if he was a bit on the lazy side too. He didn't take shit off his students the way Kakashi-sempai did. I won't say Gai would've been a perfect match, but at least he wouldn't have given Sasuke that much free rein."

"Kakashi-sensei only had one genin team, that's common knowledge. Team Seven was the first genin team to pass his exams."

"As a jounin in charge of genin, yes, that was his first. But he was a trainer of sorts in ANBU too. You forget, I was in ANBU for years."

The chakra coursing through Yumiya's channels started to burn. _Dammit. I'm going to run out before this row is done_. She slowed the flow considerably for a moment as she pondered. _I could open these cuts and pour more blood into the soil. More blood means less chakra is required. But then I run the risk of anemia._

"Are you all right, Yumiya-san?"

"I'm about at my limit. I'm debating whether I should risk using more blood or not."

"Don't overdo it," Konohamaru said. "Chakra is easier to replenish than blood, after all."

"Perhaps, but the more blood I use, the less chakra I need to use. If I do it right, I can finish this row before I run out." She grabbed a shuriken, widening the cuts on the fingers of her left hand. "Otherwise, some of these will be stunted."

"How does it work? This _kekkei genkai_ of yours?"

"Who the fuck knows?" Yumiya grumbled. "I think there's some chromosomes that are similar to plants, something they recognize. But I dunno. I never bothered to learn. Mum never told me cuz I never asked."

"Say, Yumiya-san, when are you and Gai-sensei gonna get married and start a family? Everyone's wondering too. It'd be a shame to let your bloodline trait go to waste."

"You little shit, stop saying shit like that!" Yumiya angrily threw a punch at the chuunin, but lost her balance and fell into a heap. "No fucking way in hell I'm gonna marry Gai, nor pop out any spawn! In case you didn't realize it, I don't particularly like men, because I'm a goddamned lesbian!"

"Gotcha!" the chuunin grinned. "Saying stuff like that gets you every time, you know."

"That and the fact that you mentioned this goddamned bloodline thing. You know I hate it, don't you?"

"I don't get it -- you're one of the few ninja in the village with a full _ kekkei genkai_, and you act like it's a burden!"

"That's because it _is_ a burden." She resumed her stance, crouched over a plant, squeezing blood into the dirt and using her chakra to force the blood into the roots. "Unlike the Sharingan or the Byakugan, this trait has no practical use in combat. Even though I don't want to be, I'm stuck being a healer and herbalist because of it. It robs me of my own self-chosen destiny, if you will, by forcing me on a path I'd rather not take."

Konohamaru leaned over where she was standing, watching her work. "Say, I didn't know you were an actual healer."

"Well, I'm not very good at it, but yeah, I do have some skills. Why do you ask?"

"Your chakra is green," the chuunin said matter-of-factly, pointing to the green aura surrounding her hands. "Looks like Tsunade-sama's Shousen no Jutsu."

"Oh, this is my natural chakra," Yumiya shrugged. "It's always this color. You've seen Naruto's red chakra, right?"

"Well, technically that's not _his_ chakra at all."

"Split hairs, why don't you? My point is, he has his normal chakra and the red chakra. The red chakra, of course, is the Kyuubi's. But you can see that chakra can take on different natural colors. Well, my clan's genetic traits tend toward green-colored chakra, which apparently the plants recognize. Which is why it takes a combination of my blood _and_ my chakra for this to work. I've also learned that soldier pills don't help. I have set amount of natural chakra at any one point, and if I use that up, I have to wait until my body has generated more. There are no short-cuts. But that's only for plant-growth acceleration; soldier pills can help bolster my ninjutsu and genjutsu if necessary. Gai will kick my ass if he finds out I used this," she added as she fished around in her hip pouch and pulled out a soldier pill. "These things are nasty, but necessary." She popped it into her mouth.

"You just said that won't help."

"It won't help with this," she gestured to the plants, "but I can still fight a battle with the chakra that the soldier pill converts." She stood up slowly, the effects of the soldier pill causing her to wobble a bit. "I've done all I can do for today with these plants."

* * *

Gaara shook some of the sand out of his hair, dragging himself to his feet before Sasuke could lance him with a modified Chidori. This was definitely not what he'd expected; the Chidori Nagashi was an electrifying attack that stunned rather than killed an opponent, but it was definitely potent enough that Gaara didn't want to be hit with it again. It shocked the nervous system, paralyzing the opponent briefly, which enabled Sasuke to focus the power into his hand and make a genuine Chidori out of it. Gaara had lucked out last time in that someone else had managed to get in the way and block the attack before Sasuke could punch through Gaara's chest. But he wasn't going to count on that luck holding a second time. 

Most of the ninja were now keeping a distance from Sasuke. Unfortunately, the best fighter at long range was Temari, who was incapacitated. There was only so far that Neji's Hakku Kuushou could reach, and Sasuke was wise to Shikamaru's Kagemane no Jutsu, so he stayed out of Shikamaru's range, blocking any attempts at using the trench knives for added range by throwing a spear of Chidori at the shadow-user.

Chouji and Kiba were already out of the fight, having been knocked unconscious by Sasuke's modified Chidori Nagashi. Tenten likewise had been knocked out of the fight when Sasuke blew up her weapon summoning scroll, rendering her almost defenseless. With Sakura as the only kunoichi in the fight now, and with Shino unable to fight because his bugs were afraid of the lightning, it left the fight up to Shikamaru, Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi, Lee, Gai, Neji, Kankurou and Gaara to fight against Sasuke, who was clearly used to fighting against orchestrated teams.

Gaara ducked behind one of Kankurou's puppets, flinching as a spear of Chidori pierced through the puppet. _When did Uchiha Sasuke get this godlike strength? Doesn't he run out of chakra anymore?_

"G-Gaara -- " Kankurou gasped, "I-I can't m-maintain this..." The chakra strings were getting thin and ragged. He'd expended a lot of chakra with the half-dozen puppets he'd been forced to use, nevermind the summoning earlier that hadn't really worked. "I c-can't do anymore..."

"Hold it for just five more seconds, Kankurou." _Maybe I can get a Sunabunshin up in the puppet's place. Not that I can control it, I never learned the puppetry techniques, so it's not like I can make a convincing one that moves._

Kakashi and Gai managed to land in front of them just as Kankurou collapsed, taking his puppet down with him. Gaara encapsulated his brother with his sand, using it to transport him to the top of the Administrative Building, out of the way of the fight.

"Kazekage-sama, I really think you should back off for a bit. He's after you, and clearly you're unable to fight him properly," Kakashi advised. "I'm not sure how we're going to fight that, since he's able to see any ninjutsu and genjutsu coming, and any taijutsu is too close of combat for that electrical current. But you're his target, so if you pull yourself out of range, we may have a better chance to surround him."

"I'm out of ideas," Gai said finally. "I hope Shikamaru's got something up his sleeve, cuz I'm totally stymied. I don't dare attempt Asa Kujaku, or even Ura Renge, on him while he's emitting electrical charges."

Kakashi glanced over his shoulder at the nearby building where the greenhouse was. "Well, we might have a trump card. Problem is, while that ninjutsu can work at a distance, it works best with a distraction technique. And that's assuming he doesn't take the lightning and spin it back on us."

"Are you thinking what I think you're thinking?" Gai asked sharply. He had one eye trained on Sasuke at all times, though Sasuke was currently focused on Naruto, who was trying to hit him with Rasengan, but couldn't get close enough to land the technique past the Chidori Nagashi..

"Probably. You know her better than I do."

Gaara, who was silently listening to this banter, brought his hands together in a seal. "I can create a diversion. It's an unfinished technique, an attempt at genjutsu, but I think it will impair the Sharingan."

Kakashi spied movement out of the corner of his eye. "Please do so, Kazekage-sama -- now!"

Gaara wasted no time: "**Sunakemuri**."

The sand at Gaara's feet leaped into motion, swirling up into the air and expanding into a dense cloud, engulfing Sasuke and Naruto.

"Excellent timing, Kazekage-sama!" Yumiya popped up out of almost thin air. "Perfect set up. Oi! UCHIHA! Eat this!" She made a rapid series of hand-seals culminating with the "Tiger" seal, a particularly potent seal for her; "_**Arashi no Mai no Jutsu!**_" The wind of the sandstorm Gaara had created was seized by the force of the kunoichi's chakra and altered direction; simultaneously, lightning sprang into being on the perimeter of the miniature sandstorm, creating a hell of a lot of noise.

"Hey, be careful!" Kakashi yelled over the noise. "He can manipulate lightning too!"

For almost thirty full seconds it seemed like Yumiya's attack was going to turn the tide and overwhelm Sasuke, since he hadn't been able to see it coming, with Gaara's sandstorm blinding him.

But then something happened as the sand began to spin out of the cloud. Sasuke ignited something, causing the lightning to violently repel. Forks of chakra-lightning lanced out in all direction, felling all shinobi within range. Because it was Chidori Nagashi and not Chidori itself, it wasn't fatal, but it stunned everyone it hit. Yumiya and Shikamaru were knocked unconscious, and Neji, Gai, Kakashi and Naruto were stunned motionless. The force of the blast knocked Sakura a good distance away. The amount of chakra Gaara needed to repel the lightning with his sand armor drained him almost completely, leaving him too weak to move.

This left only one person besides Sasuke standing after the dust cleared: Rock Lee, who had managed to dodge the lightning when his sixth sense had warned him of its probability. Facing down with his old, old rival, Lee felt nothing but pure anger coursing through his veins. The "Nice Guy" facade fell away as his aggression rose.

It was time.

Slowly he crouched down and pushed the leg-warmers down, revealing the leg-weights strapped just above his ankles. With a sharp flick of his wrists, he unlatched the straps and pulled the weights away, dropping them into a loud pile behind him. Simultaneously, he pooled his strength, focusing his attention on the Opening Gate. He felt it spring open, and chakra began to course more thoroughly through him.

"So, Uchiha Sasuke-kun," he said calmly. "This is how you treat your own people? I must admit that I am very angry with you. Not only have you targeted my dear friend, but you have betrayed Konoha, you have threatened my wife, you have injured my sensei, you have incapacitated my teammates, and you betrayed the allied village that you should carry no grudge against. But the most unforgivable thing you have done is to so thoroughly spurn the one who thinks of you as a brother, who has spent the past ten and a half years trying to save you. I think it is time you learned a lesson or two about Leaf ninjas. Your Sharingan is not infallible. I told you once before, and I will say it again: you can follow my movements, but you cannot keep up with me. I will make sure of that."

_Rest Gate._ The Second Gate sprang open. All his fatigue faded away in flash. _Life Gate_. He felt himself grow warm as the Third Gate opened and his skin began to flush with the increased bloodflow. Although his body temperature didn't change, he felt slightly feverish at the warmth of his skin. He also heard, distantly, the yells of his fellow ninja, including Gai-sensei begging Neji to stop him, and Neji saying he couldn't even move.

_Pain Gate_. His lungs felt like they expanded in his chest as the Fourth Gate burst open. He breathed in deeply and focused the chakra down the network toward the crucial next point. _Limit Gate_. He nearly trembled as his chakra network began to hum with power as the Fifth Gate released. As he continued to breathe deeply, he reached into his pouches and pulled out several kunai and shuriken affixed with wires.

"The Lotus of the Leaf Village blooms even in times of hardship," he said, his voice echoing slightly with the rampant power in his body. "And when it blooms in adversity, it is the rarest and most beautiful flower of all. Come, Sasuke-kun! I will show you this Lotus!"

He launched himself at Sasuke, and the combination of the open Fifth Gate and his removed weights made him faster than even Sasuke could comprehend. Somersaulting as he reached the missing-nin, Lee kicked upwards and send Sasuke flying unceremoniously into the air. With a flick of his wrist, he hurled four shuriken with wires, wrapping the wires around Sasuke's ankles.

He landed in a crouch and pulled the wires taut, not even registering it when the wires bit into his hands and drew blood. Then, with a curved throw that Tenten had taught him, he threw the four Kunai and made them cross each other, winding around Sasuke, binding him. With a mighty heave, he lifted himself up off the ground and wound all the wires around his hands. Then, with another inhuman heave, he began whirling the helpless missing-nin like a lariat, then sent him flying straight up into the air. He'd planned for Sasuke to break free of the wires, and the missing-nin performed almost on schedule, lancing through the wires with his electricity and lightning current.

_But Chidori Nagashi is no match for the Keimon._ It was time to open the forbidden Sixth Gate; even with as much chakra as the Fifth Gate let flow, he still did not have enough to perform the modified Renge technique he wanted to perform. He needed the Sixth Gate to convert all those calories and proteins into chakra.

Lee focused his chakra into a jetstream. He couldn't mold or transform it, but he had spent the last ten years learning to channel it and control its flow. Neji had helped him learn how to control the flow, by closing or widening his points in training using his jyuuken until Lee got the hang of how it felt and learned how to make it move that way. He had learned how to use chakra to walk on the surface of water, scale a tree or building wall by foot, and Sakura had shown him to some degree how to put force into his punches using chakra. No, he couldn't mold chakra or transform it using ninjutsu, and he could only control his own chakra through sheer force of will, making genjutsu just as impossible for him, but he could open Seven of the Eight Gates without trouble, and do so on command.

_View Gate_. He felt the Gate swing open, not quite as eagerly as the others, but without hesitation. His belly seemed to burn with the converting power. Chakra began to course back up his spine and through his center. He knew he was going to regret this later, because he was going to be a mess after this was over, but now he had enough chakra.

And now was the gamble of a lifetime. He'd never tried this, because after developing the technique, he'd never had enough Gates open to see if he could do it. But it was now or never. _I will NOT allow you to threaten my friends and my wife and get away with it. You dismiss me at your own peril, Sasuke-kun!_

Launching skyward, he brought himself alongside Sasuke, who was floundering a bit in mid-air. Lee gathered the chakra raging through his body and focused them in his hands. He didn't have Sakura's control, and so he needed vast amounts more, but he had learned from training with Neji how to release it. As he brought his fists down on Sasuke, the chakra erupted from his fingertips exactly as he'd hoped it would.

His arms moved like pistons, pummeling Sasuke's abdomen and torso, the strikes damaging the muscles and skeleton, while the lancing chakra targeted the inner network and began to interfere with Sasuke's ability to keep Chidori Nagashi going. As the lightning "armor" faded away, the Uchiha survivor caved beneath the blows of the proud taijutsu expert.

With a horrific crash, the two slammed to the ground, with Lee just barely managing to get himself away before the impact of the fall made the two of them practically absorb each other. He fell to his hands and knees, gasping for breath as the Gates slammed shut in rapid succession. Without their deluge of power, he felt jelly-legged and wobbly.

"That, Sasuke-kun, was the Nozomi Renge."

Sasuke answered only by moaning as his consciousness wavered in and out. Any other human being would have been broken beyond repair, likely killed by that impact. But Sasuke was a survivor, and a lucky one at that. Still, he didn't escape injury. He knew he'd been beat. His body hurt too much to even breathe. His ribs were all cracked, he was sure of that, and his lungs were probably collapsed. His spine was possibly even broken.

"Have you nothing to say for yourself, Sasuke-kun?"

"You fucking ass, Lee. You did it again. You kicked my ass again. You're supposed to be a weak pansy-ass who couldn't hack it against Gaara. How the hell did you beat me?"

"I have had ten and a half years to make myself into the shinobi I wanted to become. What have you done in those same ten years, besides become an outlaw?"

"I have fulfilled my life's purpose. You have defeated me, so kill me. Finish the job."

"I have no intentions of killing you."

"You're either too weak from that attack, or too weak in the heart."

By now, the paralyzing effects of the lightning was wearing off, and several jounin stirred stiffly. Sakura scrambled to Lee's side.

"I swear to god, I'm going to kill you when I get a chance, Lee! How _dare_ you do that!"

"You don't want to go making a widow of yourself, do you, Sakura-chan?" Naruto said as he stood up shakily.

"Fine, then I'll just make him _wish_ he was dead!"

Gai and Kakashi managed to arrive then, and Gai caught Lee before he collapsed completely. Kakashi hesitantly approached where Sasuke lay in an impacted dent in the hard sandstone.

"Lee, what the hell was that? Where did you learn something like that?" Gai demanded.

"I developed it myself, Gai-sensei," Lee said fuzzily, his eyes lazily drooping as unconsciousness threatened. "When I figured out that Asa Kujaku is beyond my abilities, I developed my own Keimon-level attack. I am glad it worked." He drooped in Gai's arms.

"Stay with us, Lee," Gai shook him gently. "Don't pass out on me. You pass out, and you may not make it home, except as a corpse."

"Was it good?" Lee murmured. "Do you approve, Gai-sensei?"

"Stop that, Lee!" Sakura demanded, tears spilling out of her eyes. "I'm so angry with you I could slap you!"

Naruto stood undecided between his current and former teammates. Kakashi was inspecting Sasuke, who was only barely conscious.

"Naruto, go tend to him," Gaara said, stepping in front of Naruto's view. He gestured toward Sasuke. "You took responsibility for him. See to him. Do not worry about Rock Lee; I will see to him myself."

"Make sure his wife doesn't strangle him," Kakashi said. "She's unpredictable when she's angry."

Gaara's mouth twitched in a shadow of a smile. "Understood."

"Holy -- what happened here? Did we miss the fun?" Jiraiya boomed.

"Ero-sennin! Where the hell have _you_ been? And you, Yamato-taichou!"

"Fighting off a half-dozen squads of enemy ninjas," Yamato said. "It is an honor to fight beside the Gama-sennin, I must admit, but I suppose I'm not as useful as I could be against Rock ninjas."

"Iwa-nin?" Kakashi said sharply. "Iwagakure is in on this after all?"

"Oh, very much so, sempai. They appear to have been in this one from the start. They came in a side-entrance, one I doubt many Suna-nin know about. It's a good thing for us that Jiraiya-sama's information network goes as far as it does."

"We've had Mist-nin and Rock-nin so far, and I would guess that a contingent from Kumogakure is up next," Jiraiya said. "Looks like you guys are all pretty beat up, so Yamato-kun and I will have to handle the next one as well."

"I can fight too, Ero-sennin," Naruto said. "I have plenty of chakra left."

"I think you have more important things on your agenda. And you can guard this building if you're itching for something to do. Don't worry -- if we need you, you'll know. But I've fought these kinds before by myself, and Yamato-kun is no slouch."

"I will assist you as well," another voice announced firmly. It was Baki, emerging from the main building. "Kazekage-sama has done more than enough, and you Leaf ninjas should not be expected to fight our enemies without at least one of us at your side."

Ino and Shizune brought a stretcher out and gently moved Sasuke onto it. Gai and Sakura kept Lee from passing out by forcing him to keep talking, though he was starting to come apart at the seams and not make the least bit of sense.

Tenten helped Neji to his feet. "I had no idea Lee had that kind of power in him; did you see that, Neji?" She blinked her eyes in amazement. "I thought he didn't have that kind of chakra control."

"He has worked very hard on it for a long time. I didn't know he could release chakra like that, but I did know he could control it's flow. You have to be able to do that to open and close the Gates at will like that. I helped him learn that, after all."

"You what? When?"

"After that disaster of the Chuunin exams ten years ago, when Lee nearly died, Gai-sensei asked me to help Lee train himself to close the Gates at will; he'd forgotten to teach Lee that part, and with all the missions required of him because we were at half power after that invasion, he didn't have as much time to teach him."

"He wanted you to teach Lee a technique you've never used yourself?"

"Well, once you master how the make the chakra flow along the main arterial channels, it's easy to make the Gates open or close. The problem was that Lee only knew how to force the chakra one way. I was able to help him by teaching him how to make the chakra flow move by using my jyuuken to familiarize him with how it feels when it flows. He just took it further than that when he learned."

"Man, is the fight over already? Sheesh! We're pretty lame, aren't we, Kiba, getting knocked out of the fight so early!" Chouji complained as Shikamaru gave him a hand to his feet.

"Yeah, well, I don't know about anyone else, but getting that close to a ball of lightning is dangerous as hell for me!" Kiba heaved himself to his feet, steadied by his teammate Shino.

Shino adjusted his sunglasses as he looked over at where Gai was shifting Lee so that he could carry him. "I had no idea he had that kind of power in him. That is very humbling, to see Rock Lee unleash a strike like that, that flattens Uchiha Sasuke in one blow."

"Say what?" Kiba said sharply.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at him; "You're telling me that was Lee that flattened Sasuke? I find that hard to believe."

Shino didn't answer as he pulled Kiba's arm across his shoulders and gave him some support. Akamaru whined as he stood up.

"Right, Gai, I know where the fuck your priorities are," Yumiya yelled crossly as she heaved herself to her feet. "Humbling, really."

"Shut up, Yumiya," Gai snarled, uncharacteristically angry. "Lee nearly killed himself to stop Sasuke. I don't see you throwing open the Sixth Gate. You have no place to criticize my priorities, when you can walk under your own power and are in no danger of dying."

"What the hell is that boy doing fucking around with those Gates again? Seriously, Neji, you oughta put a block so he can't use them."

"You think I'm capable of that?" Neji said, flabbergasted. "Look, I'm flattered you think so highly of my abilities, but seriously, that's not my place to decide what's best for him, even if I could do that. He knows what kind of danger he's in when he does it. He is an adult, you know. Here, you need help up?"

"Not from you, punk," Yumiya brushed him off gruffly, dusting off. "I was just trying to give that green moron a hard time and he bit my head off."

* * *

"Wow," Shizune said with a shake of her head. "That's a complex fracture in the spinal column, and yet it's entirely in the bones, not the spinal chord. You won't be paralyzed, Sasuke-kun, but you'll be in excruciating pain for a while. I'm afraid that the Hyuuga sisters and I haven't enough chakra right now to fix that for you, and I don't think it's fair to ask Sakura or Ino to attempt that. They don't have the Byakugan or Hanabi's bone-knitting ability, nor my experience." 

Sasuke snorted softly in complete derision and shifted his eyes away.

Sakura clenched her fists, but Kakashi put his hand on her shoulder.

An orderly was putting linens on the bed next to Sasuke, preparing it for Lee, who was mostly exhausted and needed sleep. Shizune had confirmed that Lee was in no immediate danger, especially as long as Sakura stayed nearby to make sure his heart didn't suddenly stop, which was a remote possibility.

Lee snoozed in Gai's arms while the bed was prepared. Sakura stood next to them, one hand on Lee's forehead, trying to keep a monitor on his vitals.

The orderly finally smoothed the bedding and turned it down, making it ready. Gai gently laid his student in the starchy white linens. Lee let out a sigh of relief as he sank into the mattress. He awoke a little when Sakura sat down next to him on the mattress and began to examine him thoroughly.

"I am sorry, Sakura, to worry you," he murmured. "That was not my intention. Forgive me?"

"I suppose, you idiot, but I'm going to angry with you for a while. What am I going to do if you die on me?"

"We have had this discussion before, I think." With that, he dozed off again.

"Don't hit him, Sakura-san," a voice said firmly when Sakura's hand clenched into an involuntary fist. She looked up in surprise to see Gaara standing at the foot of the bed, still as a statue.

"I wasn't going to," she said, inwardly kicking herself for sounding so dumb.

"You looked like it. He is not nearly so fragile as you and his sensei treat him, but neither is he strong enough to withstand one of your chakra-punches, not in the condition he is in. I was warned to make sure you don't strangle him in your ire." The Kazekage's eyes shifted slightly to land his gaze on the still form of the motionless Uchiha in the next bed over. Sakura returned her attention to her patient, resisting the urge to slap him awake. He was in no danger, she kept telling herself.

She heard a soft, soft hiss and felt something move over her foot. Looking down in alarm, she realized that Gaara's sand was collecting around Lee's bed. She looked up sharply at the Kazekage, who wasn't looking at her, focusing his attention on Sasuke.

"Um," she cleared her throat. And again, louder, to get his attention. "Your sand?"

"Defense," he replied. "It is infused with Wind chakra. If he tries anything, it will overpower the lightning."

"He was beaten fair and square, and besides, he can't do anything with a broken back."

Gaara's tattoo shifted, indicated the muscle that would have controlled his eyebrow, if he had eyebrows, had shifted up in inquiry. "And have you ever killed in cold blood for the sheer bloodlust of it?"

"Uh, no."

"Then trust me on this, he is not through with Lee-san. He has the same eyes I once had. Eyes that seek affirmation of existence through the killing of others."

Sakura blinked. "How do you know what your eyes were like?"

Gaara snorted softly; "Again, it is a metaphor. I see in him what I once felt myself. A distinct loneliness, masked by antipathy and salved only by killing those who get in the way."

"Very perceptive," Sasuke retorted softly, proving that he wasn't asleep. "But I'm nothing like you. You could never understand what I have been through."

Gaara's eyes twitched slightly in annoyance. "You know nothing about me, clearly. And that is fine; you may remain ignorant."

Sakura paused in taking Lee's pulse and looked over at the motionless redhead. "Gaara?"

His eyes shifted over to her, acknowledging that she'd spoken to him and prompting her to speak, without him saying a word.

"Naruto once told me that you tried to kill Lee in the hospital."

"I did. I suppose you want to know why."

Sakura was taken aback with the frank lack of remorse in his tone. Didn't he proclaim that Lee was now a close friend?

"Well, it would be nice to know why, I suppose."

"The short answer to that is, I had failed to kill him earlier and sought to remedy that."

_Oh that helps a lot._

Her expression must have said as much, because after a few moments, he elaborated.

"You must consider my mentality at the time. No one had ever survived my Sabaku Kyuu before, though granted I had never attempted it with so little chakra. I did not know what to think, only that someone I had tried to kill had survived. I cannot say that I hated him; I cannot say that I have ever hated anyone I have killed. It has never been personal. Shukaku was never particular about who I killed, only that I did so regularly.

"At the time, I was haunted constantly by Shukaku. In retrospect, I assume that he sensed the Kyuubi inside Naruto and was reacting to it, because he never bothered me so incessantly and ceaselessly as that time we were in Konoha for the Chuunin Exams. Also, I was being used as a weapon, which is what I was created to be, and was being treated as a weapon. Prior to that event, most people avoided me, and my own siblings had minimal contact with me. People who shied away from me suddenly were giving me orders or trying to cater to me. It is hard not to be bitter when you are shunned and feared for years, and then suddenly called upon to do someone else's bidding. And then to be so thoroughly pounded to the point where I nearly had to delve into Shukaku's arsenal to win the round... it was humbling and aggravating. Not to mention what might have happened had I lost the round."

He paused, perhaps a bit surprised at his own verbosity. He was not given for long speeches under any circumstance.

"So then why didn't you kill him, if you tried to do it again?"

"Simple: Naruto stopped me. I forget who else was with him at the time; the memory is fuzzy at best, because I was being railed at by Shukaku at the same time that that was happening."

"I'm told it was Shikamaru. And frankly, how can you forget that he was there, if he used his Kagemane no Jutsu on you? That's not something easily forgotten."

"It has been more than ten years since that happened, and my memory of events that far back is faulty at best. Shukaku was a completely separate entity within me, and he frequently raided my consciousness and my memories. I have gaping holes in my memory from where he was present. The only memories I have of the aftermath of that whole Chuunin Exams final rounds fiasco are of the two bouts that took place before mine, and of waking up on the forest floor, completely drained of chakra; I know that I fought against Naruto, and that somewhere in the interrim, I unleashed Shukaku, but I have no concrete memories of it anymore."

"That's strange. Didn't you say once that your fight with Naruto taught you a lot about yourself? That his views changed yours, and inspired you to strive to become Kazekage? I seem to recall Lee telling me that once."

Gaara shrugged; "I remember saying that, and I remember that that is true, but the actual event itself is no longer in my memories. They disappeared when Shukaku was extracted. I can only assume that those memories that are now gone were stored in Shukaku's memory, and when he was extracted, those memories went with him. It was through his memories that I knew about the previous two hosts, though not what happened to them; presumably because he did not understand what had happened."

His eyes shifted. "I am not entirely sure why I have told you all this, to be honest. I owe you no explanation. I do know that I am extremely fatigued and still in some amount of shock for what has happened to my village in my absense. At this point, any semblance of normalcy is a welcome relief."

Sakura turned and looked over at Sasuke. "Sasuke, I can tell you're awake. Why did you betray Sunagakure?"

"That's rich. Now inaction is called betrayal? It's not my fault the leader of this ridiculous village is so idiotic he leaves his village defenseless in time of war. No village is my home. If the Hokage abandoned Konohagakure when an attack is imminent, I would not raise a finger to stop the intruders. Same goes for Sunagakure and its stupid Kazekage. I didn't help any of those villages attack. It's not my fault this village is easy to infiltrate."

"You lead a sad and bitter existence, Uchiha Sasuke. I pity you," Gaara said coldly.

"I fulfilled my life's purpose. I was made an avenger, and I avenged."

"And now what will you do? That is why I pity you. You have achieved your lifetime goal, which makes your life now meaningless."

Sasuke didn't answer that.

After a while, silence befell the infirmary. Those who were uninjured (or whose superficial injuries were fixed by Ino, who was the only healer-nin with much chakra left after the tumor extraction from Sanami) gathered in Gaara's office under Kankurou's command, prepared to back up Yamato and Jiraiya if needed. Sakura stayed with Lee, resisting the urge to lay down on the mattress with him. At some point, she noticed that Gaara had dozed off, leaning against the wall and propped up to some degree by his sand gourd. It was strange to see Gaara asleep standing up like that. She wondered if it was something he'd developed during the years he'd been Shukaku's host, a way to rest without fully sleeping.

"So, when he spoke of his wife, he was talking about you," Sasuke said suddenly, startling Sakura. "Amazing."

She stiffened. "What's amazing?"

"That you married a freak like that."

"It's better than what I did for nine years, which was pine for you," she snapped.

"No wonder he went ballistic on me."

"I waited for you for so long, Sasuke," she said finally, after a long silence.

"Don't get me wrong, Sakura; I couldn't care less about you. You were useless ten years ago, and to me you're still useless and worthless."

"Well, at least I'm not a traitor," she said softly, tears stinging her eyes. She hated herself for that lame comeback, but she was too stunned by his callous words to think of anything better.

"Kazekage-sama!" Konohamaru came pelting into the infirmary, panting. "Neji-san just spotted an army of samurai approaching from the south!"

"Samurai?" Gaara snapped awake in an eyeblink.

"That's what he said. He said he can't tell who they're working for, but he assumes they aren't friendly."

"Oh bloody hell!" Ino said, dropping the clipboard in her hands. "We are _ screwed!_ There's no way in hell we can fight an army of samurai!"

Gaara frowned. "This is a war between Hidden Villages. None of the daimyou should be getting involved. Naruto!" He looked sharply over at the blond jounin, who was approaching to check on Sasuke's condition. "I need you to stay here. I'm going to go see what the hell this army of samurai is about."

"Is that wise, Gaara?" Naruto asked. "You're the Kazekage. You're this village's last line of defense."

"Right, and I'm also the first line of defense. I can raise the desert if I have to. I need you to stay here and keep this sand active. You have an affinity to fuuton chakra; hold this and keep it charged with fuuton chakra." He handed Naruto a small figurine made of sand. It was a figurine of a tiny raccoon; it looked almost exactly like a tiny copy of Gaara's familiar. "That will keep the sand here active. I do not trust Uchiha Sasuke not to attack Lee-san and Sakura-san, and he is smart enough to only attack when your attention is turned. The sand will sense the raiton chakra and will activate automatically."

Naruto blinked owlishly as he took the figurine. "Alright, but I think you're being overprotective."

"An ounce of prevention..." the Kazekage said in reply, and left the axiom open-ended as he exited the room, some of his sand trailing after him.

"'An ounce of prevention'?" Naruto blinked again. "Say what?"

"It's a saying, Naruto," Sakura said. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

"Sasuke wouldn't dare attack Geji-mayu when I'm here, would you, Sasuke."

"Shut up, Usuratonkachi. If I weren't in so much pain, I'd be wringing your neck right now."

* * *

Kankurou shaded his eyes as he peered down from the outer wall at the phalanx approaching steadily. He noticed the floating white orb hovering some distance overhead; Gaara was using his Daisen no Me. 

"What do you think it is, Kankurou?" Kiba inquired. "Enemy or ally?"

"I want to say ally," Kankurou said; "They're wearing armor like I've seen in our daimyou's court. But why they're marching on us is a mystery. The daimyou's fucking scared as hell of Gaara."

Kakashi had a spyglass in hand and was peering through it. "They don't appear to be hostile. They seem to be traveling, not approaching a target. Has your daimyou gotten word of your village's disaster?"

"Probably."

"That's the daimyou's personal guard legion," Gaara said finally, releasing the Daisen no Me. "I can tell by the armor and weapons. Kankurou, go down there and meet them just outside the gate. Kurosuna, go with him, and if they're hostile, get him out of there. I'll bury them with Sabaku Taisou if I have to."

The nin-uma nodded his great black head and presented himself for Kankurou to ride. With a shrill whinny, the horse kicked up a cloud of sand and galloped down the rampart, executed a complex turn on a hairpin, and galloped out of the walls through the long channel of the gateway.

Gaara clenched his hands on the straps of the gourd's harness.

_I hope I have enough chakra for this, if they're hostile. And I hope they don't shoot Kankurou on sight. Kurosuna's fast, but only if he gets enough warning._ His resolve hardened. _If they so much as harm Kankurou, they're all dead. I don't care why the daimyou sent them, he is one of the only jounin I have left, nevermind that he's my brother. As Kazekage, I will avenge the slaying of my top jounin; and if I take some pleasure in it, well, he is my only brother, and I will not stand for him to be harmed.  
_

Kurosuna came to a halt just beyond the boundary of the walls, just as the phalanx reached the same point.

There was absolutely no movement whatsoever from either side.

Gaara brought his hands together, forming the opening seal for Ryuusa Bakuryuu, prepared to raise the desert.

Then the phalanx's ranks parted, revealing a shogun for the daimyou, mounted on a giant red warhorse.

"We come on Kaze-sama's orders to offer Kazekage-sama what defense assistance we can," the shogun announced, using the daimyou's title as the Lord of the Wind Country. "Word has reached us of the attacks upon this village and we are prepared to assist Kazekage-sama if he will accept our help."

* * *

**Coming soon: "Part Six: Beautiful Disaster" wherein Naruto and Kakashi try to convince Sasuke to return to Konoha.**

* * *

**END NOTES: Terminology, for those who are a bit rusty:  
**"**Geji-mayu**" is what Naruto calls Rock Lee. It translates as "fuzzy eyebrows" or as the English dub anime calls it, "Bushy Brow" and is Naruto's nickname for Lee. He doesn't mean anything rude by it, and Lee doesn't seem to mind.  
"**Ero-sennin**" is what Naruto calls Jiraiya. It means "perverted hermit" or as the English dub anime calls it, "Pervy Sage" and is Naruto's nickname for Jiraiya. Jiraiya doesn't particularly like the nickname, but he seems to get used to it.  
"**Gama-sennin**" is what Jiraiya is often called. It means "toad hermit" or as the English dub anime calls it, "Toad Sage"  
"**Usuratonkachi**" is what Sasuke calls Naruto when he's being derisive. It basically means "idiot" or "clumsy idiot"  
**Hitai-ate** are the "forehead protectors" (headbands) worn by all shinobi with symbols of their home village. Because they can be worn anywhere, or not worn at all, I have chosen to use the untranslated word rather than the term "forehead protector" or "headband"  
A **kunoichi** is a female ninja. It is often used in the series as a synonym for ninja or shinobi, when talking about a female. Thus it's used here sporadically much as it is in the series.  
A _**kekkei genkai**_ is, basically, a "bloodline limit" -- refering to a talent or trait that is passed down genetically. The Sharingan and the Byakugan are the two most well-known _kekkei genkai_ in this series. 

**Hidden Villages:**  
**Konohagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Leaves" is the principle village of the Fire Country (Hi no Kuni), and is headed by the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade.  
**Sunagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Sand" is the principle village of the Wind Country (Kaze no Kuni), and is headed by the Godaime Kazekage, Gaara.  
**Kirigakure**: "The Hidden Village of Mist" is the principle village of the Water Country (Mizu no Kuni), and is headed by the Mizukage.  
**Iwagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Rocks" is the principle village of the Earth Country (Tsuchi no Kuni), and is headed by the Tsuchikage.  
**Kumogakure**: "The Hidden Village of Clouds" is the principle village of the Lightning Country (Rai no Kuni), and is headed by the Raikage.

**Canon technique names:**  
**Asa Kujaku** means "Morning Peacock" and has not yet been officially translated into English (used by Gai)  
**Chidori** means "One Thousand Birds" but is largely left untranslated in the dub, beyond the intial translation (used by Kakashi and Sasuke)  
**Chidori Nagashi** means "One Thousand Birds Current" and is currently a manga-only attack (used by Sasuke)  
**Daisen no Me** means "Third Eye" and is Gaara's spying technique.  
**Hachimon** is literally the "Eight Gates" chakra control technique.  
**Hakke Kuushou** literally means "Eight Trigrams Empty Palm" and is Neji's specialized development of the Kaiten (used by Neji)  
**Hakkeshou Kaiten** literally means "Eight Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin" though the English dub calls it "Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation" (used by the Hyuuga clan)  
**Hakke Rokujuuyon Shou** literally means "Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms" and is left unchanged in the English dub (used by the Hyuuga clan)  
**Kagemane no Jutsu** literally means "Shadow Imitation Technique" though the English dub calls it "Shadow Possession" (used by Shikamaru)  
**Omote Renge** means "Front Lotus" or "Initial Lotus" though the English dub calls it the "Primary Lotus" (used by Lee)  
**Raikiri** literally means "Thunder Cut" or "Lightning Edge" but is called "Lightning Blade" in the dub (used by Kakashi)  
**Rasengan** literally means "Spiraling Sphere" but seems to be left largely untranslated in the English dub (used by Jiraiya and Naruto)  
**Ryuusa Bakuryuu** literally means "Quicksand Waterfall" and has not yet been translated in the English dub, since it hasn't shown up yet (used by Gaara)  
**Sabaku Kyuu** literally means "Desert Coffin" though the English dub calls it "Sand Coffin" (used by Gaara)  
**Sabaku Taisou** literally means "Desert Imperial Funeral" and has not yet been translated in the English dub, since it hasn't shown up yet (used by Gaara)  
**Shousen no Jutsu** literally means "Mystical Palm Technique" and is the ninjutsu technique of choice for most medic-nin. (Used by all medical ninja)  
**Ura Renge** means "Reverse Lotus" though the English dub calls it the "Hidden Lotus" (used by Lee)

**Invented technique names:**  
**Arashi no Mai no Jutsu** (literally "Dance of Storms Technique")is Yumiya's favorite ninjutsu attack and combines a manipulation of Lightning and Wind.**  
Nozomi Renge** (literally "Hope Lotus") is Lee's created Sixth-gate attack in place of attempting Asa Kujaku  
**Sunakemuri** (literally "Sand Cloud") is Gaara's attempt at genjutsu, which raises a miniature sandstorm to obstruct the opponent's vision.

**Chakra types:**  
**Fuuton**: wind-based chakra; weaker than katon, stronger than raiton  
**Raiton**: lightning-based chakra; weaker than fuuton, stronger than doton  
**Doton**: earth-based chakra; weaker than raiton, stronger than suiton  
**Suiton**: water-based chakra; weaker than doton, stronger than katon  
**Katon**: fire-based chakra; weaker than suiton, stronger than fuuton

**Honorific suffixes, for those who are rusty:  
****-chan** is used mostly towards females, and indicates a long-term, close friendship. Generally one only uses it for someone one has known since childhood. From the outset in the canon story, Naruto has always referred to Sakura as Sakura-chan.  
**-dono** is an antiquated suffix that is less formal than _-sama_ but more formal than _-san_. It is often used to express either submission (when used in place of _-san_) or equality (when used in place of _-sama_). In this story, Tsunade uses _-dono_ toward Gaara to indicate their equality in ranks.  
**-kun** is used mostly towards males that are younger. It is a more informal, if you will, form of _-san_, but less intimate than _-chan_. It can be used towards girls, but is not usually.  
**-obaachan** is used to address someone who is much older. In this context, "baa" essentially means "Honorable old woman." It's sometimes translated as "granny" but is actually very respectful, as long as the addressee doesn't mind being referred to as an old woman. The male equivalent is "_-ojiichan_"  
**-oneesan** is used to address a woman who is older than you and with whom you have a relatively close, familial bond, though blood relations aren't necessary. The word "nee" means older sister, "san" is a respectful suffix, and "o" is a modifier that adds respect to the word. Thus, saying "Temari-oneesan" is like saying "Big Sister Temari-san." The male equivalent is "_-oniisan._" Hanabi and Hinata use this with Neji, who is their cousin, to show their blood relation. An alternative, showing more affection, would be "_-(o)niichan_" like Konohamaru uses with Naruto, or "_-oneechan_" like Naruto uses with many older kunoichi.  
**-sama** is used to express great respect and humility.  
**-san** is the most generic and safest suffix to use.  
**-sempai** is used to address a superior within an organization. Rather like "brothers" or "sisters" within a cult or coven. Roughly this can mean "senior" versus "junior." This is the "big brother/big sister" term. Its counterpart is "_-kouhai_" but isn't used nearly as much, because calling someone "-kouhai" can be taken as offensive or demeaning if you're not careful.  
**-sensei** is used to address a teacher, instructor, or an expert in a particular art. Also, _-sensei_ is used to address doctors.  
**-shishou** is used to address one's master in a particular art, such as martial arts, or in the case of Sakura, in the healing arts.  
-**taichou** is used to address one's team leader or captain.  
(paraphrased and interpreted from source: Wikipedia's entry on "Japanese Titles")


	7. Part Six: Beautiful Disaster

**Author's Note**: As stated in the prologue and first chapter, this is set way out from the start of the series, and is so far based on about chapter 360 of the manga, no further, since that's where the manga was when I started this project. HOWEVER: Because the Yondaime Hokage's name was revealed in chapter 367, I am going to use the name provided by Kishimoto-sensei, because... because it's canon, okay? Anyway, the story itself is based no further than 360, because, dammit, I don't want Jiraiya to die. Therefore, it's probably AU. Refer to the Author's Note in the first chapter for more details.

Also, this chapter didn't go quite as planned. I intended to focus more on Sasuke, but I just don't quite "get" his character, so I downplayed him. He's still here, and still being something of an ass, but he proved too difficult to write convincingly, so I opted to explore Gaara and Lee a little more, because I totally love them more and understand them better. Selfish writering FTL.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own any part of "Naruto" or its characters. It all belongs to the incomparable Masashi Kishimoto-sensei. I'm just playing in the sandbox of this amazing world.

**Warning**: Coarse language and adult situations. Some references to sex. Nothing explicit, but you have to remember that Lee and Sakura had their honeymoon interrupted. You dun been warned.

* * *

_"The flower which blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all." --proverb from "Mulan"_

_"He's magic and myth, as strong as what I believe. A tragedy with more damage than a soul should see" --Kelly Clarkson, "Beautiful Disaster"_

* * *

**"The Flower in Adversity"  
Part Six: Beautiful Disaster**

"These Cloud ninjas are a joke!" Naruto scoffed as he stamped his foot into the rampart and planted his hands triumphantly on his hips.

"Don't get complacent," Gaara admonished mildly. "Raiton caves at fuuton. Your fuuton chakra is considerably more powerful than most, and potentially stronger than mine."

"Ha!" Naruto laughed. "My Wind chakra is stronger than yours, and you're the _Kaze_kage!"

"Exactly. But I think my katon is stronger than yours, and you will be the _ Ho_kage," Gaara retorted in kind. "So it works out. And neither of us can claim our fuuton came from our bijuu either."

"Nope," Naruto dusted his hands off. "Kyuubi is primarily fire. What was Shukaku?"

"Earth. After all," the Kazekage brought his hands together in a seal, sending a spear of fuuton energy slicing through a Kumogakure ninja's building lightning attack, "what is sand but the broken-down particles of rocks? The only reason it is associated more with wind is because sand is moved by wind, whereas rocks are not."

"Speaking of rocks! Gimme some fucking Rock-nin, man, I wanna smash some heads!" Yumiya growled, her arms folded stubbornly across her chest. "I want to use some Lightning for once, and I'll be damned if those stupid Cloud-nin aren't a bad match for my Arashi no Mai. Sasuke proved that when he turned the Lightning back on me." She grinned bloodthirstily, gaining an askance look from Gaara and a glare from Naruto. "Oh shut up. Kakashi-sempai understands me when I say that those Rock-nin have it coming."

Some distance behind them, Gai, Kakashi and Yamato watched mutely as the three worked like an old team. With Temari out of action due to illness, those three were the strongest with fuuton ninjutsu, which was the trump card to beating raiton ninjutsu like the Cloud ninjas used. Gaara used long-range fuuton, Yumiya used mid-range, and Naruto used close-range. Plus, with Naruto's kage-bunshin ability, Yumiya's on-the-fly genjutsu and typhoon-like Wind-shield, and Gaara's chakra-sand that was really only susceptible to water (which made fighting Mist-nin difficult for most of the village), they really had all bases covered for defense as well.

Kakashi watched Gai out of the corner of his eye, noting that Gai watched Yumiya exclusively.

_You haven't changed a bit, Gai_, he thought. _You have the same look in your eyes that Lee-kun always had when looking at Sakura. The difference here is that you're fixated on someone who's out of your reach._

"Are the three of them holding that whole group off by themselves?" Jiraiya asked as he sauntered up. "Damn, that little missy can hack it with the Godaime Kazekage and future Rokudaime Hokage? Not too shabby."

Gai chuckled. "Don't let her hear you call her a little missy, Jiraiya-sama. She's got a temper to rival Tsunade-sama's, though her punch isn't as lethal. And she really hates being patronized by men."

"She hasn't used her genjutsu once this whole fight, has she?" Yamato observed. "She's focusing all her chakra on her ninjutsu, which isn't like her."

"She's using soldier pills, what do you expect?" Kakashi said, gaining a sharp glance from Gai. "I saw her pop a couple. Her highest level genjutsu relies on her _ kekkei genkai_ chakra, which doesn't respond to soldier pills; her ninjutsu, on the other hand, does."

"I thought her chakra looked a bit funny," Gai said with a growl, his hands curling into fists. "Dammit, where'd she get those? I thought I threw them all away."

Kankurou, standing next to the taijutsu expert, raised an eyebrow at Gai. "What's the problem with her using them? I mean, she's an adult, and this _is_ war."

"She's got an old addiction to soldier pills," Yamato said, "from her ANBU days after her partner Yukiko was killed. She blamed herself for Yukiko's death, felt that Yukiko wouldn't have died if she'd been stronger, and for a time she tried to use soldier pills so that she could train at obscene hours."

"Training at obscene hours," Jiraiya said with a chuckle, ruffling Gai's hair. "Sounds quite familiar."

"Ditto," Kankurou grinned. "When he was the ambassador here, Rock Lee used to train during the evening hours. We all thought he was crazy. The coolest time of day is just before sunrise. It's wiser to go to bed early and get up before sunrise to train. He did both -- trained in the morning and in the evening. I don't know when he ever slept, to be honest."

"Yeah but Gai doesn't use soldier pills," Kakashi pointed out. "He does everything under his own power, succeed or fail. And that's how he teaches his students to train. I doubt Lee and Neji have ever even so much as touched one, and Tenten I imagine is only familiar with them because all ANBU are equipped with them for emergencies."

"Ah," Jiraiya nodded, "that would be why you get so angry with Yumiya for using them, eh, Gai?"

"That and she nearly poisoned her own system with those damned things," Gai hissed through his teeth. "I'm gonna give her a piece of my mind when this is over with." His hands were in tight fists. Tenten, standing off to Kankurou's right, flinched. She'd only twice been on the receiving end of those fists of rage, but both times had been monumentally unpleasant. Gai didn't hold back on anyone. When he was pissed off, he punched the person who pissed him off. It didn't matter who they were. If they couldn't defend themselves, then they deserved to be clobbered.

A sparkling kunai came whizzing in, missing Naruto and Gaara and stabbing into the ground at Kankurou's feet. The puppetmaster yelped loudly and leaped back. "Hey! Gaara, what the hell?"

"You've got plenty of chakra, Kankurou. Protect yourself," Gaara said without turning, forming his sand into a spear and hurling it at an enemy.

Kankurou grumbled angrily as he summoned a puppet. "My main element is earth. My defenses are useless against that."

The fight raged on for about three more minutes. Naruto found an opening and prepared a quick Rasengan, catapulting himself in the fray and taking out a swath of cloud ninjas. Yumiya formed an aerial sword of Wind chakra and cut through a forming lightning attack, trying her hand at long-range ninjutsu.

"Naruto! Baki! Get out of there!" Gaara then ordered.

"And that right there is checkmate," Kakashi said drolly. "This fight is now over. I recognize that move now. Yumiya, don't even think about it!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," the kunoichi retorted and backflipped away. She landed, after a couple more flips, next to Gai. "Dammit, shown up by a pair of young punks."

"One of them Kazekage and the other one likely to be Hokage within the next year or so," Jiraiya teased, thumping her behind the head, stalling Gai's punch of fury. "The fact that you could hack it with them at all is impressive."

"Wait, Kazekage-sama!" Baki called as he body-flickered up to the rampart. "The streets aren't quite evacuated!"

"What the hell are the civilians doing out in the streets at a time like this? Don't they know anything."

"Not the civilians -- the samurai that are helping rebuilding the damaged buildings."

"It's okay, Baki-sama, they're out," a Suna chuunin said as she landed next to the tall Suna jounin. "They're quick."

Gaara didn't waste any time and raised the sand from beneath the city. "**Ryuusa Bakuryuu.**"

A tidal wave of sand rose up and drowned the Cloud ninjas, burying them under a metric ton of sand. The sand spilled into the side streets and crashed against sealed houses.

"Heh," Kankurou grinned. "Gaara's showing off now."

"Nevertheless," Kakashi drawled, "it's amazing no matter how many times I see it."

Gaara then dropped to his knees and slammed his hands to the ground. "**Sabaku TAISOU!**" He shouted the second word.

The ground below compacted with an ominous _CRACK!_ and a cloud of dust was belched up from the impacts.

"Nicely done, Kazekage-sama. Now you should rest a bit," Baki offered a hand to Gaara. "You've been doing this too much today."

"Mist-nin coming from the east!" Hanabi announced from her position at the top of the administrative building; Neji relayed the information to Naruto and Gaara. "Large contingent. About ten squads or so."

"Bloody hell," Gaara grumbled. "I'm useless against them. My chakra is running extremely low, and I don't think even with a boost from Naruto that I'll be of any use. My sand is almost worthless in the face of their water attacks."

"I'll take over," Kakashi said. "I have a pretty decent arsenal of suiton attacks, thanks to facing off with a number of Mist missing-nin. Jiraiya-sama, you with me on this one?"

"Eh, sure, why not?"

"I'm with you too, sempai," Yamato said enthusiastically. "And you, Kankurou-dono?"

"Sure, I suppose. I can't let Gaara outclass me that much!"

"I'm still fresh," Naruto announced. "I'll go too, Kakashi-sensei. I'm not letting you guys have all the fun. I have a score or two to settle with those Mist-nin too."

* * *

"Sounds like they're done," Sakura said as she opened the curtains of the window. She and Lee were sequestered away in the suite room Gaara had offered them. Shizune had told Sakura that her top priority was getting Lee back into the fight. She had told Sakura that she, Ino and the Hyuuga sisters would manage the patients in the infirmary; it was more important that one of the top fighters dispatched by Hokage-sama get brought around and back into the fight. Sakura was under the distinct impression, however, that Shizune was trying to give her and Lee some time alone, out of guilt for their interrupted honeymoon. And with things appearing to be largely under control by the other healers, Sakura was, for once, content to sit out of the way and enjoy her assignment. 

It had now been about twenty-four hours since Lee had unleashed his Sixth Gate attack on Sasuke. Lee was already feeling much better, though very stiff and sore, and quite easily tired out. Neji, who had learned some medical ninjutsu from his two cousins and had specialized it on the chakra network, because he had a rare ability, rare even by Byakugan standards, to clearly see all chakra points and gates and to affect them to some degree, had repaired Lee's damaged Gates, though he warned Lee that there was old irreparable damage to the Seventh Gate -- a hold-over from their failed mission in Kirigakure almost two years ago -- that if he ever used that Gate again, he had to be prepared to die, because from what he could see, Lee's Seventh Gate would now force the Eighth Gate open as well.

"I feel useless," Lee complained. "Gai-sensei only needs an hour or two of rest to recover from using Asa Kujaku in full."

"You're not the same as Gai-sensei, Lee," Sakura said pragmatically, coming over to sit down next to him on the bed. "He's got a lot more experience than you, and you have more damage to your Gates than he does."

Lee snorted and leaned back against the cushions.

"Oh don't worry, at least this way we can pretend we're still on our honeymoon!" She grinned and curled up next to him, resting her chin on his chest. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her across his torso, pressing a kiss into her hair.

"Your hair has always fascinated me," he added as he ran his fingers through it. "Your mother calls it light red -- or was it strawberry-blonde? -- but I call this pink."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," she grumbled good-naturedly. "I get that a lot. Mom says that's why she named me Sakura anyway -- because my hair reminds her of a sakura tree in bloom. It's not a normal hair color, but it's my natural color."

"So I can tell, from your eyebrows."

He fell suddenly silent, so much so that she twisted a bit to look him in the face. He looked troubled, and had a hand at his own forehead, fingering the hairs of his thick eyebrows.

"What's the matter?"

"I... hope these are not genetic," he said finally. "I do not want my children to go through what I went through." The hurt in his voice made what he said worse. And it made a pain in Sakura's heart flare up acutely as she remembered how she had made fun of his eyebrows when she'd first met him. Nowadays she found them weirdly attractive. They gave his face character. His eyes, which had been awkwardly large and round as a young teenager, no longer seemed to overpower his face, though they were still unusually large. The size of his eyes gave him better night vision, she'd learned in recent years. No one in the village knew anything about a Rock clan that he might have hailed from -- Lee insisted that the only other person he knew with his surname was his uncle -- but there had been some speculation that Lee was part of some off-shoot clan that was in the process of developing its own doujutsu _kekkei genkai_, though at present the bloodline was still many generations from producing anything useful.

She hadn't realized that he was sensitive about his eyebrows, since Gai-sensei had the same goofy brows, and made fun of them all the time. It was easy to forget that Lee didn't have Gai's unflappable confidence. Gai supposedly had grown up in a loving family (Sakura assumed that since Gai no longer had that family anymore that they had probably died in the Kyuubi attack some twenty three years go) and had made his own way in the world without looking back. Lee had to overcome more obstacles, and still was haunted by his complete lack of ninjutsu and genjutsu.

"I'm sorry," she said softly, bringing her hands to his face.

"For what?"

"I don't know... I guess for making fun of your eyebrows all those years ago."

He scoffed softly; "Everyone did. I do not recall that you were any worse than anyone else. Besides, by the time I met you, I had come to terms with many things thanks to Gai-sensei." He shifted, tightening his grip on her. "And besides, I think I have already forgiven you, after all this time." He kissed her forehead firmly.

Grinning like a fool, she moved up to place her mouth over his; "Your aim needs work, Lee."

"It does not. I was aiming for your forehead. But you've got my blood up now," he added as his demeanor changed again to the one she got such a thrill out of, the aggressive one he used in the bedroom occasionally, "and now you'd better be prepared to make good on it."

"I'm all yours and you know it, you idiot!" she laughed, untying her robe.

He flipped her over, pinning her beneath him; "Not so fast. I'm taking my time here, thank you." The deep thrum in his throat sent a pleasurable shiver down her spine. Even if she'd wanted to fight against his dominance, which she didn't, she really couldn't; this change of personality was such a huge turn-on for her that she was never able to resist it. He wasn't dominant outside the bedroom, for the most part. She found it exciting that that he had this hidden personality, an aggressive (though still courteous and accommodating, as was Lee's natural tendency) self-assurance born of their mutual passion, one that only she got to see. It was like a secret just between the two of them.

He took his time undressing her, rather like unwrapping a package, kissing her in various places as he did so.

"You are so hasty, Sakura," he admonished gently as he peeled his own clothing off.

"Am not! I've been waiting a long time for the privacy to do this," she retorted, wriggling her arms free and reaching up to clasp his face, pulling him down for a licentious kiss, shifting her hips in eager anticipation.

One of the last things that either of them said before commencing this oldest of dances was Lee murmuring "I love you, Sakura."

* * *

Basking in post-coital bliss, Sakura yawned luxuriantly, her head nestled on Lee's shoulder. His measured breathing indicated that he had dozed off, a common thing for him to do after sex. She toyed with an errant curl of hair on his chest. She took that moment to examine his vitals, noting that his heartbeat was strong and his breathing was clear. He appeared to have suffered no dangerous backlashes from opening the Sixth Gate. This time he had been in complete control, and had closed the Gates immediately after use. His body was still wracked with adverse reactions to the extensive chakra-conversion that the Sixth Gate triggered, but that would heal with time. 

He shifted and his head rolled slightly, his chin bumping against her temple. He let out a soft, contented sigh and resumed his impromptu slumber.

She was abruptly overcome with emotion. It amazed her how much she loved this man, more and more as time went on. Even seeing Sasuke again and knowing he would be coming home to Konoha had not, as she'd feared at one point (though she'd never admitted it to anyone), diminished her adoration for the man she now called her husband. She had been slow to respond to his advances, but once she'd fixed her heart on him, she hadn't ever regretted anything. She silently thanked her lucky stars that he had waited patiently for so long for her.

She placed a tender kiss on his jaw, garnering a sleepy response from him, though he still didn't wake up. She giggled softly to herself at him, remembering how annoyed she'd been with him for falling asleep after sex back in the beginning, when she'd first started sleeping with him. She'd been annoyed enough to the point where she'd even said something to her mother, wondering if she was doing something wrong. Her mother had laughed and told her that it was common, and had revealed that Sakura's own father was the same way. While she hadn't wanted to know that much about her parents, she had been relieved to know she wasn't doing anything wrong and that this was normal, even if it was somewhat annoying.

She prodded his shoulder gently, trying to rouse him awake. He grunted and opened one eye at her. "What?"

"I'm going to go make some tea; would you like some?"

"Mmm, no thank you. Not right now. Too tired."

"Alright. You rest easy. You're still recovering."

"Mmmph."

She got up, grabbed up her kimono and swung it around herself. This wasn't their home, she couldn't parade around the entire suite in the nude, especially since Naruto was sharing the suite with them, just another bedroom of it. And this suite still belonged to Gaara.

The suite was empty when she came out of the bedroom. She padded across the warm sandstone floor toward the kitchenette, pausing by the terrarium. It seemed weird that Gaara kept some reptilian pets, though they seemed like they were mostly just there for a certain atmosphere. They didn't seem to be like the kinds of creatures that interacted with humans much.

That was when she noticed a small portrait sitting on the hutch over the terrarium. It wasn't a very large picture, and it was in a very plain frame, but there was something about the reverent way it was displayed that indicated it meant something to Gaara. It was of a woman with sandy-blond hair and kind eyes.

Idly pondering the identity of the woman in the portrait, Sakura went to the kitchenette and began making some tea. As the leaves steeped, she watched the tiny desert lizards in the terrarium, occasionally scurrying around and scooping up feeder bugs.

Just as she was pouring herself a mug of tea, she heard the front door of the suite's antechamber open. Years of being a shinobi had her primed so that she was aware of anything nearby that could be used as a weapon, in case this was an ambush. Her senses stood on end as she waited until the "intruder" appeared in the archway from the antechamber.

It was Baki, with Gaara. The Kazekage looked horrible, like he'd done too much and was out of chakra. Baki was supporting his village leader as carefully as he could.

"Sorry to intrude," Baki said as he eased Gaara onto the nearby couch. "But he's exhausted and needs to rest, and his office isn't the place for that right now. I hope we are not interrupting anything."

Sakura shook her head quickly; "Not at all! We're the ones intruding, after all, in a manner of speaking. I just made some tea, Gaara, would you like some?"

"That actually sounds rather good," the Kazekage said tiredly as he slouched into the cushions. "Baki, thank you, and I'm sorry for this."

"Nonsense, Kazekage-sama. You've done more than enough, but you're only human. I want you to rest here for at least an hour or so; longer, if you can stand it. If you stay in your office, invariably something will prevent you from resting. Sakura-dono," the older jounin looked over at her, "please see to it that he rests, at least a little. He has hardly rested at all since this whole fiasco began."

"I will, if I have to use one of my chakra-punches on him to make him behave himself," Sakura said as she handed Gaara a mug of tea.

Baki chuckled and looked over at his kage. "Well, you did bring this on yourself, Kazekage-sama, by offering your suite to them."

"Bah, she doesn't scare me. I don't feel like moving much," Gaara retorted blandly, taking a long pull at the tea. "I'm stiff and sore, and I'm next to useless against Mist-nin."

"If we need you, I'll let you know. But only if things are dire," Baki said as he left. Sakura sat down on one of the chairs and looked appraisingly at Gaara, who rolled his shoulders wearily, then made a face.

"You little brat!" he scolded, unbuttoning his collar. "Get out of there! Gah!"

His little raccoon emerged from his collar, scolding him in her own chittering way.

"Oh shut it, Suna, I didn't have a scratch anywhere on me until you came into my life. Now I have little nicks all over me from your claws."

Sakura found Gaara's peeved conversation with his familiar inordinately hilarious.

"I am glad you find my annoyance amusing, Sakura-san," Gaara said without rancor. "What is so funny?"

"I'm sorry," she said. "I just think it's cute how you were scolding her, and she scolds you right back. It's like she's the only creature with enough guts to call a spade a spade with you."

"She knows I need her, so she sasses me," he said simply, scratching the small creature on the head. "But she'd do anything for me. Just as I would do anything for her."

"If I didn't know better, I'd think you were talking about a woman, not an animal."

"Ah, if only," he replied with a smirk. "But, I would not be so lucky. The people of Sunagakure revere me, and call me their savior, but they still have not forgotten what I once was." He shifted position and laid down on the couch. Suna-chan curled up on his chest and began grooming herself.

"So, how have you two been?" He said finally, cocking an eye at Sakura. "I hope you both have been taking it easy, though I have my doubts." He pointedly looked at her sloppily-closed kimono. "Doesn't appear to me like you've been resting much at all." She felt her face grow hot as she flushed bright red.

"Well," she retorted, "I'll remind you that we're still newlyweds! And our honeymoon was interrupted!"

"You don't have to remind me of that," he replied blandly. "I am very much aware of the inconvenience this has been to you both. I am not nearly so ignorant of human sexual interactions and what happens between people when a relationship gets to a certain level, as most of you would have me think. You may recall that my brother has been married for a year now, and he is rather crass about some things. Even if I had been somewhat ignorant of sexual relations before then, which I wasn't, I certainly am not now."

She felt terribly uncomfortable for having snapped at him and focused her attention on finishing her tea. As she drained the mug, she looked up at the terrarium, and noticed the photo again. "Gaara, who is in that picture up there? She looks familiar."

"That?" The Kazekage murmured. "Her name was Karura. What do you think of her?"

"Well, she has kind eyes. She looks like she was a very gentle person."

"Does she? She was not necessarily a kind woman. She cursed Sunagakure with her dying breath."

"That's sad. How did she die? And who was she?"

"She died as a result of Shukaku being sealed, as the sacrifice required for such a sealing. She was the wife of the Yondaime Kazekage, and mother of three children. A daughter and two sons."

Sakura felt her mouth go dry. _The Yondaime Kazekage was Gaara's father... and the fact that she died 'as a result of Shukaku's sealing'... has to mean..._ "You mean... _your_ mother?"

"Very intuitive," Gaara retorted dryly. "Yes. My mother. How do you think I got the name 'Gaara'? She cursed the village as she died, in hopes that I would avenge her. That is the difference between the two Yondaime kages: the Hokage sacrificed himself to seal a rampaging demon into the body of a newborn, in order to save the village from the demon's attacks. The Kazekage sacrificed his wife to seal a dormant spirit into his unborn son to create an 'ultimate weapon' despite the overwhelming proof to the contrary of such devices working. He was not willing to risk himself or anyone of any use to him, so he sacrificed his broodmare." His voice was bitter and cold. He flicked his fingers, as if flicking dust off his hands, and a tendril of sand jumped. "But Temari and Kankurou tell me I'm far too harsh on him. On the other hand, the Kazekage treated me like a weapon, I can see that clearly now. I was not a son to him, no matter how pampered I might have been, or how much he trained me in all the darkest secrets of Sunagakure. In the end, I was merely his favorite weapon. I see Kankurou with his favorite puppets, or Temari and her war-fan, and I know that I was merely the Kazekage's weapon."

_He refers to the man as "the Kazekage" -- not as "Father" or any other such relation. Man, he really does hate his predecessor. Though, I suppose I can't blame him, I probably would hate the man too if I were put through the stuff he was for the reasons he was. Didn't Lee say something about Gaara being raised by an uncle, who really messed with his head?_ She looked over at the Kazekage's face, drawn tight with apprehension and anger at an old memory. _Best not to mention it. It's probably like mentioning Mizuki-sensei to Naruto._

"Someday," Gaara said, as if he was carrying on a conversation with someone else. "Someday my tears will return to me, and I will weep for every life lost in this catastrophe; and I will atone for them all. Then we will heal. And we will rebuild anew. Do you approve?"

_Is he talking to me? He can't be. But who is he talking to? _Sakura's hands gripped the tea mug. _Should I answer?_

The sand that had puddled at the foot of the couch leapt up as he raised his arm, collecting in his hand and forming into a tiny three-dimensional version of the Sunagakure hourglass symbol. "Thank you," Gaara said softly, clenching his fist around the hourglass, crushing it back into sand. "I will not fail you again." He lowered his hand, the sand pouring through his fingers onto his chest.

Then he closed his black-lidded eyes, and in a few breaths he was asleep.

_What... was that?_ Sakura thought as she picked up the tea mugs, took them to the sink and proceeded to wash them. _Who was he talking to?_

* * *

Shizune breathed a sigh of relief as she leaned back against the wall and took the cup of tea offered to her by Konohamaru. "Things seem to be going pretty well here in the infirmary. What's the latest about the civilians?" She looked up at Ino, who was preparing a batch of serum. 

"Most of those who survived the initial wave seem to be fine. Some are pretty ill, but not fatally so, just uncomfortably so. This seems to be an attack focused on shinobi, rather than at everyone. I wonder if it was something that fed on chakra? Most of the people who are still alive have little to no chakra to speak of."

There was a commotion outside the infirmary as the doors clattered open. Kakashi was strung between Yamato and Naruto, and looked like he'd been really badly worked over. Jiraiya and Kankurou followed, with Kankurou pale and clearly in pain, holding his shoulder gingerly.

"What happened?" Ino nearly dropped her medicines.

"Mist-nin," Yamato said. "Sempai dropped his guard and got nailed."

"I ran out of chakra," Kakashi retorted. "You forget, this Sharingan consumes a ton of it. I wasn't expecting so damned many Mist-nin all at once, and for them to have so damned much chakra! Naruto and Gaara-sama are probably the only two I've seen with more chakra than them!"

"He's lost a lot of blood, Oneechan, can you help him?" Naruto looked over at Shizune expectantly.

"What happened to you, Kankurou?" Baki asked about that same moment.

"Dislocated his shoulder," Jiraiya said. "Just needs it popped back in, but I'm not good enough at that. A medic-nin needs to do it."

"Ino," Shizune said. "Take care of Kankurou-dono. I'll see to Kakashi-sempai."

Yamato and Naruto lowered Kakashi into a chair, and Shizune started examining the wound on his shoulder. "This is poisoned," she said. "I can see it in the way the skin is turning colors. Hold still and brace yourself, Kakashi-sempai, this might hurt." She gathered chakra into the palm of her hand, pressed it against his shoulder, made a net out of it, and gathered up the poison in one swing of the "net." Clenching it in her grip, she yanked it out through the wound.

Kakashi yelped so loudly that it startled even Sasuke. "The hell?" The Uchiha survivor snapped peevishly, roused out of a sound sleep by the noise.

"_Might _hurt?" Kakashi said with a gasping breath. "'This _might_ hurt? Good god, that hurt almost as bad as when my eye was slashed! Son of a bitch!"

Shizune spun the chakra-net around to reinforce it. "I'll have to have Sakura take a look at that, to catch any I might have missed. You stay there and don't move too much; anything I missed will get into your bloodstream soon and will be a royal pain in the ass to extract then. Konohamaru-kun, go get Sakura. Just make sure you knock politely before barging in on them." She dumped it into a nearby pan as Konohamaru set off to find Sakura.

Ino and Hinata departed the building to deliver some more medicines to the civilians, while Hanabi set to work attempting to patch up Sasuke's bone fractures. Shizune made the rounds to the decreasing number of patients in the infirmary. Many had made remarkable enough recoveries that they were now in their own homes, recuperating. As she stopped by Sanami's bed, she did a double take; "Hey, why is there a cat in here?" She pointed to the drab brown feline crouched at the foot of the bed.

"That's Benzaiten," Baki said, "and I'd leave her alone. She's not in the way, is she?"

"No, but animals are unsanitary. Sanami-san is barely stable at best."

"She's mine," Kankurou said, coming over. "C'mere, Neko-chan." He snapped his fingers briskly down by the floor, and the cat stalked over to him. He scooped her up into his arms. "She's just worried about Sanami."

"Well, get her out of here," Shizune said peevishly. "Cats are not sanitary animals, and your wife is, as I said, barely stable at best. The last thing I want to deal with is infection on top of everything else."

"So," Naruto said finally, turning to Sasuke, who was grimacing as Hanabi worked on his spine. Hanabi had a rare natural ability to accelerate bone-knitting that had required only minimal training from Shizune. "Are you going to come quietly or do I have to beat you into submission to make you return home?"

"I don't have a home to return to."

"Liar. You're from Konoha, and several of us have been trying like hell to bring you home for a decade. You're not getting away that easily."

"Why do you care so much, Naruto? I don't get it. Why do you give a fuck what happens to me? I've never been able to figure that out."

"Because in everything but blood and birth, you are my brother. And I aim to be a better brother to you than your real brother ever was. I'll remind you that you're not the only one without any family."

"Ditto on that last part," Kakashi said. "Sasuke, believe it or not, if you come back quietly, I don't think Hokage-sama will even discipline you severely. You'll have to re-earn trust, but you can resume your career. You are one of us, and we protect our own. There is no severing the ties."

"Bullshit," Sasuke retorted. "Itachi severed his ties with Konoha."

"And if he had renounced those severings, he would have been welcomed back," Kakashi replied.

Sasuke tilted his head and eyed his former teacher; "One name: Orochimaru."

"Well, that's different."

"How? He was once a Konoha ninja, who betrayed the village in much the same way Itachi and I did."

"It _is_ different, Sasuke. Orochimaru is on a whole different level from anyone else. He was one of the Sannin, don't you forget."

"Orochimaru wasn't that different in the sense Sasuke mentions," Jiraiya said. "If he had repented, Sarutobi-sensei would've granted him clemancy. It was only once he'd killed the Hokage that he was officially beyond any forgiveness. That's about the only way to sever your ties with Konoha; and frankly, if you couldn't hack it against Rock Lee, you don't stand a chance against Tsunade. She always had the best taijutsu of the three of us."

"You're coming home, make no mistake," Naruto said firmly to Sasuke. "I'm just asking you if you'll come willingly or if I have to beat the shit out of you repeatedly until you can't fight it."

"Naruto has a vested interest in bringing you home anyway," Jiraiya said with a grin. "Once you're home safe and sound, Tsunade will begin the process of stepping down. She's held that over Naruto's head all these years, that she won't step down until he brings you home."

* * *

Gaara dozed for at least twenty minutes while Sakura tidied up the kitchenette. During that time period, Lee appeared in the doorway, having fully dressed. He blinked owlishly. 

"What is Gaara-sama doing here?"

"What does it look like?" Sakura grinned. "He's resting. Apparently he wore himself out. This suite does belong to him, you know."

"Yes I know that, I am just surprised to see him here, and to see him asleep like that. In all my time here in Sunagakure as an ambassador, I saw him asleep once, and that was when he dozed off in his office."

"I'm awake enough to hear you, you know," Gaara said without opening his eyes. "It feels good to just do nothing. I'm so stiff. I can barely move."

"You have done more than any one human should be able to do, Gaara-sama," Lee said evenly, taking a seat in a nearby chair. "I cannot say that I blame you for being sore and exhausted."

"Bah," Gaara snorted. "My body is simply not sturdy enough to handle that much prolonged combat. That is why I am usually the last line of defense. I no longer have the stamina I once had. If I were to fight you, Lee-san, I do not know that I would be able to win, because you are fast enough to outrun my sand, and I do not have the stamina I had ten years ago."

"Why not?" Sakura asked.

"There was a tiny flaw in Chiyo-baasama's Tensei ninjutsu," Gaara said after at least a full minute of silence. "She could not have known about this flaw."

"Flaw? What flaw?"

"Due to the length of time I was... er... lifeless... my body started to develop rigor mortis. As a result, every now and then, I get stiff and my joints lock up on me. The Tensei ninjutsu is most effective if used before rigor mortis sets in. This is not to say that I am not grateful for what she did for me; but unfortunately, there are these small setbacks that are somewhat annoying."

There was a knock at the front door.

"Oh, what now?" The Kazekage muttered, shifting on the couch to throw a dirty look at the closed door.

"Sakura-neechan?" Konohamaru's voice came through the closed door. "Shizune-san said you're needed in the infirmary. The sooner the better, though it's not quite an emergency. Kakashi-sensei took a bad hit and got some poison from a Mist-nin and Shizune-san wanted to make sure all of it got drawn out."

"Crap," Sakura looked down at herself. "I need to get dressed first. I'm hardly presentable!"

Gaara smirked. "Go ahead and come in, Konohamaru. Sakura-san will be ready in a few minutes."

Lee just grinned at her as she hurried into the bedroom to get dressed. She stuck her tongue out at him as she passed him.

"Hey, do not blame me! It is not my fault you did not get dressed, Sakura!" He teased.

"Shut up!" She retorted good-naturedly as she closed the door. She gathered up her uniform and hurriedly dressed herself, noticing that Lee had taken the time to straighten the bedding so that it wasn't immediately noticeable what they had been getting up to. An impromptu blush crept up her cheeks.

As she tied her hitai-ate on her head, she stepped out of the room. Gaara was standing by now, as was Lee. Gaara's familiar sat perched on the Kazekage's head, nestled contentedly in amongst his auburn hair. She was quite adorable, really. Her bright black eyes twinkled in the light, and she gazed around confidently from her august perch.

"Are we all going?" She asked in surprise when Lee and Gaara moved to follow her and Konohamaru out of the suite.

"I cannot stay idle while my village still suffers," Gaara said matter-of-factly.

Lee just shrugged; "I am bored?"

"Whatever," Sakura laughed. "I can't order Gaara around, and when you give me those puppy eyes, I cave every time. Let's go."

* * *

When they arrived, Sakura noticed that Kakashi was situated the bed Lee had been placed in yesterday, the one right next to Sasuke. Hanabi was in the process of working on Sasuke's spine, while Naruto sat on a stool between the two beds, talking excitedly. 

"You can join my team, you know, Sasuke," the blond was saying. "For this mission I've got a four-man squad, but Neji isn't a usual addition. He's got his own team of genin to look after. We ought to, between the three of us jounin, get you up to chuunin level before I have to leave the team."

"What?" Sasuke flinched as Hanabi hit a nerve. "Leave the team? Why would you have to?"

"Because Obaachan will probably step down in about six months once we get you home. Which means I can't be a jounin anymore, cuz I'll be the Hokage."

"Really?"

"Tsunade's been grooming him to be her successor for more than a decade, you know, kid," Jiraiya said from where he leaned against the wall.

Sasuke blinked. "So, you're actually going to be the Hokage? Unbelievable. Look, I don't know that I want to be a ninja anymore anyway. And I wouldn't go anywhere near Konoha if I had a choice in the matter."

"So you're coming home then?" Sakura said as they approached. Gaara slung the sand gourd off his back and propped it up against the wall. His familiar crawled out from underneath the cowl of office he wore and climbed up ontop of his head, and proceeded to groom herself.

"I'm only agreeing not to fight. Usuratonkachi has given me no choice in the matter of whether or not I return."

"Oi! Geji-mayu, are you feeling better?"

"Somewhat, yes," Lee rotated his shoulders tiredly. "A little too tired for my own comfort, really, but much better than the last time I opened that many Gates."

"Good," Naruto said with a nod. "I'd hate to explain that one to Obaachan."

Sakura began examining Kakashi's wounded shoulder. "Sensei, how did you get this? This is bad."

"Dropped his guard," Naruto said with a grin. Sakura snorted as she inspected the poison that Shizune had pulled out, making notes in the margins of the chart Baki had put together.

"No, I ran out of chakra, dammit!" Kakashi retorted. "I'm not that green, Naruto!"

Sakura made a list of plants and sent Konohamaru to get them so she could make an antidote. "This will be easy to treat, but it's definitely unusual. If I didn't have Tsunade-shishou's manuals, I'd never have thought this poison usable this way."

"Tell me, Kakashi," Jiraiya said with a wry smile, "Minato was a good student and a hell of a Hokage. I imagine he was a good teacher too. Were you just too arrogant to learn from him, or have you forgotten everything he taught you?"

"What, I can't make a stupid mistake? Because that's what it was: a stupid mistake. Hell, Minato-sensei made dumb mistakes too."

"Not many," Jiraiya grinned. "You're a brilliant ninja, Kakashi, I won't deny that, but you pale in comparison to Minato."

"Well, of course. He wasn't much older than Naruto when he claimed the Hokage title. That's pretty young, especially since Sandaime-sama was still very much alive and capable."

"Do I need to remind you how old Gaara-sama was when he earned his kage title?" Lee said with a grin.

"Right, and there was no one else for the job, right, Gaara?" Naruto retorted. "You guys went without a Kazekage for a couple of years."

Gaara nodded mutely, his jade-green eyes focused on Sasuke. Temari, who was playing shougi with Shikamaru from her bed nearby, took up the narration: "He had to become a jounin before we could feasibly put him forth as Kazekage, and there really was no one else for the job, because the Kazekage had to be someone who could convincingly stand up, and give orders, to Gaara, because Gaara was undisputedly the most powerful shinobi in the village. And since the only people in the village who weren't deathly afraid of him were myself, Kankurou and Baki, none of which suited for the role, we had to wait."

"It was an interesting battle, too," Kankurou said with a dry chuckle as he perched himself on a stool next to his sister's bed, his cat held firmly in his arms. "The village council hated us for it, but it worked out in the end. The first time Gaara came in handy defending the village as Kazekage, we gloated like no tomorrow."

"And then we got our butts chewed out for him getting kidnapped, don't you forget that," Temari retorted. "You getting poisoned was another bone of contention. Baki nearly lost his rank because of that, you know."

"I lost my head, dammit, how many times do I have to tell people that I wasn't thinking straight?"

"Ooh, Gai, I swear to god, when I get through with getting this fixed, you are so fucking dead!" Yumiya stomped into the room, clutching her jaw with her hands.

"Right," Gai came in after her, his face just as stormy as hers. "I look forward to it."

"What happened?" Shizune stood up in alarm.

"He broke my fucking jaw, is what happened!" Yumiya raged. "Punched me so hard I saw stars!"

"You've got healing ninjutsu, Yumiya. Can't you fix it?"

"I'm too low on chakra, and I was never good at fixing broken bones or joints."

Shizune shook her head and activated her Shousen no Jutsu as she approached Yumiya. The injured kunoichi sat down on a vacant bed and presented her broken jaw for healing.

"You might want to stand by, Shizune," Gai said dangerously. "I'm liable to break it again on her. She clearly hasn't learned her lesson."

"Oh fuck you, Gai," Yumiya grumbled. "I'm not one of your fucking students."

"What's going on? You've never done this much damage to someone you care about this much, Gai," Shizune said as she pieced together the fragments of jawbone. "What gives?"

"She's back to using soldier pills again. Seven years of being clean, down the drain."

"I repeat: fuck you, Gai. You don't rule me."

"Yeah, but, Yumiya, soldier pills have done some pretty nasty things to you," Shizune admonished gently. "You shouldn't be using them."

Yumiya glared at her. "Who's fucking side are you on? I'm doing what I have to in order to be of any use to my superiors. I'll remind you that my ridiculous _kekkei genkai_ is nowhere near as potent as it used to be, because of its limitations."

"Well, soldier pills don't help your _kekkei genkai_ chakra anyway, so why are you bothering?"

"If Yukiko were still alive, I'd have that entire greenhouse full of any plant you could desire, in a single day, and still have chakra to spare to send all of you into a pit of despair!" The kunoichi raged.

"But Yukiko isn't still alive," Gai retorted angrily. "She died, what, nine years ago? Why are you beating yourself up about that?"

"And who's fault is it that Yukiko is dead, Gai? MINE! It's all my fault that the person who completed me, who meant more than anything in the world to me, died! God, don't you know anything?!"

"Calm down, Yumiya, you're starting to come apart at the seams," Shizune said firmly. "There's no reason for you to be lashing out at Gai. He had nothing to do with any of that."

"I know, because it was my fault. I was such an idiot. I should never have tried to cast a genjutsu on an entire castle." Tears leaked out of Yumiya's dark eyes. "With her, I might have actually been able to make something of myself. Instead, I'm just a spectre, just a... a joke of a Narita."

Gai crossed his arms angrily. "Quit pitying yourself."

Sakura flinched and looked up at Lee. "Is he usually this cold?"

"No, not usually. I do not recall ever seeing Gai-sensei so angry, though," Lee replied. "I tried very hard to please him, so I never saw him this angry at me."

"Gai," Jiraiya said, "leave it alone. You know as well as any of us that this attitude of hers is what got her kicked out of ANBU. You can't change her."

"You are such a mess, Yumiya," Shizune said finally as she finished the repairs. "An emotional disaster. Gai is trying to keep you from self-destructing, so just try to be nice for once, please?"

In response, Yumiya shoved Shizune away and stood up, covering her right hand in chakra and making a fist. She lunged at Gai and threw a chakra-punch. Gai didn't dodge or panic at all; he just brought his hand up and blocked the strike.

"Your anger isn't helping you at all, and this is not the place for a fight," he said coldly. "If you're set on fighting me, if you think I'm to blame for your current condition, I'll give you six hours to recover your chakra. Then meet me at the top of the administrative building at midnight, and we'll settle this." He stalked out of the room.

"Sorry, Gai," Yumiya said softly, flexing her hand. "I have to break this tie. You're getting too close to me; I can't bear to lose another best friend."

"Idiot," Yamato replied as he appeared beside her. "Fostering tension in the team is a bad idea. It's not easy to piss off Gai, and you managed to do it. I don't know whether to congratulate you on a stupid job well done, or hit you for screwing things around."

"Sorry, taichou." She bowed repentantly. "They don't call me the Black Sheep of the Narita Clan for nothing."

"So what the hell was that about anyway?" Shizune demanded.

"I just... I know how he feels about me, and I can't bear to have him get this close to me. Everyone who's ever gotten this close to me has died. He deserves better than that. I thought maybe if I reminded him of Yukiko, he'd back off."

Konohamaru arrived with the plants in hand. "Here you go, Sakura-neechan."

"Thanks, Konohamaru." Sakura reached into her hip pouch and pulled out her mortar and pestle, and began grinding the plants together. Gaara began to make the rounds, seeing to the patients and inquiring on their conditions. Several of the Suna-nin in the infirmary seemed happy and pleased that their Kazekage showed interest in their improving conditions. The three jounin who were recovering from being poisoned reassured their kage that they would be back to normal in "nothing flat" though Gaara admonished them to take it easy.

Sanami was conscious and conversing with an orderly when Gaara arrived at her bedside.

"Kazekage-sama," she said softly. "I'm sorry."

"Nonsense. You have outlived my estimations. You are far stronger than I imagined. We will be sending you to Konoha when the rest leave; with luck, Hokage-sama can cure you. I can't spare Kankurou to go with you, so I'll send Konohamaru with you all, and he'll escort you back when you're healed." He touched her forehead, injecting some chakra into her nervous system in an attempt to help her sleep painlessly. "Now sleep, and recover your strength."

As her eyes grew heavy, she murmured; "You know we'd do anything for you, right, Kazekage-sama? Even die for you."

"There's no need to die for me. Just sleep." He covered her eyes with his hand, and felt her slip off into slumber. He then folded his arms into his robe sleeves and scanned the room. Temari and Kankurou were watching him.

"There," Sakura said as she administered the antidote. "You'll be back to normal in no time, Kakashi-sensei."

"Kazekage-sama," a voice said from the doorway as the shogun here on behalf of the Kaze no Kuni's daimyou opened the doors. "I need to speak to you."

Gaara heaved a sigh. "This rebuilding will take a long time, but we will persevere. For people like you, who have suffered and sacrificed so much," he touched Sanami's forehead again, "I will do whatever I must to guarantee that we will revive. From the ashes of this immolation, a phoenix will arise anew."

* * *

**Coming soon: "Part Seven: Homeward Bound" wherein the Konoha ninjas head for home, with Sasuke in tow.**

* * *

** END NOTES: Terminology, for those who are a bit rusty:  
**"**Geji-mayu**" is what Naruto calls Rock Lee. It translates as "fuzzy eyebrows" or as the English dub anime calls it, "Bushy Brow" and is Naruto's nickname for Lee. He doesn't mean anything rude by it, and Lee doesn't seem to mind.  
"**Ero-sennin**" is what Naruto calls Jiraiya. It means "perverted hermit" or as the English dub anime calls it, "Pervy Sage" and is Naruto's nickname for Jiraiya. Jiraiya doesn't particularly like the nickname, but he seems to get used to it.  
**Hitai-ate** are the "forehead protectors" (headbands) worn by all shinobi with symbols of their home village. Because they can be worn anywhere, or not worn at all, I have chosen to use the untranslated word rather than the term "forehead protector" or "headband"  
A **kunoichi** is a female ninja. It is often used in the series as a synonym for ninja or shinobi, when talking about a female. Thus it's used here sporadically much as it is in the series.  
A _**kekkei genkai**_ is, basically, a "bloodline limit" -- refering to a talent or trait that is passed down genetically. The Sharingan and the Byakugan are the two most well-known _kekkei genkai_ in this series.  
"**Usuratonkachi**" is what Sasuke calls Naruto when he's being derisive. It basically means "idiot" or "clumsy idiot" 

**Hidden Villages:**  
**Konohagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Leaves" is the principle village of the Fire Country (Hi no Kuni), and is headed by the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade.  
**Sunagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Sand" is the principle village of the Wind Country (Kaze no Kuni), and is headed by the Godaime Kazekage, Gaara.  
**Kirigakure**: "The Hidden Village of Mist" is the principle village of the Water Country (Mizu no Kuni), and is headed by the Mizukage.  
**Iwagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Rocks" is the principle village of the Earth Country (Tsuchi no Kuni), and is headed by the Tsuchikage.  
**Kumogakure**: "The Hidden Village of Clouds" is the principle village of the Lightning Country (Rai no Kuni), and is headed by the Raikage.

**Canon technique names:**  
**Chidori** means "One Thousand Birds" but is largely left untranslated in the dub, beyond the intial translation (used by Kakashi and Sasuke)  
**Raikiri** literally means "Thunder Cut" or "Lightning Edge" but is called "Lightning Blade" in the dub (used by Kakashi)  
**Rasengan** literally means "Spiraling Sphere" but seems to be left largely untranslated in the English dub (used by Jiraiya and Naruto)  
**Ryuusa Bakuryuu** literally means "Quicksand Waterfall" and has not yet been translated in the English dub, since it hasn't shown up yet (used by Gaara)  
**Sabaku Taisou** literally means "Desert Imperial Funeral" and has not yet been translated in the English dub, since it hasn't shown up yet (used by Gaara)  
**Shousen no Jutsu** literally means "Mystical Palm Technique" and is the ninjutsu technique of choice for most medic-nin. (Used by all medical ninja)

**Invented attack names:**  
**Arashi no Mai no Jutsu** (literally "Dance of Storms Technique")is Yumiya's favorite ninjutsu attack and combines a manipulation of Lightning and Wind.

**Chakra types:**  
**Fuuton**: wind-based chakra; weaker than katon, stronger than raiton  
**Raiton**: lightning-based chakra; weaker than fuuton, stronger than doton  
**Doton**: earth-based chakra; weaker than raiton, stronger than suiton  
**Suiton**: water-based chakra; weaker than doton, stronger than katon  
**Katon**: fire-based chakra; weaker than suiton, stronger than fuuton

**Honorific suffixes, for those who are rusty:  
****-chan** is used mostly towards females, and indicates a long-term, close friendship. Generally one only uses it for someone one has known since childhood. From the outset in the canon story, Naruto has always referred to Sakura as Sakura-chan.  
**-dono** is an antiquated suffix that is less formal than _-sama_ but more formal than _-san_. It is often used to express either submission (when used in place of _-san_) or equality (when used in place of _-sama_). In this story, Tsunade uses _-dono_ toward Gaara to indicate their equality in ranks.  
**-kun** is used mostly towards males that are younger. It is a more informal, if you will, form of _-san_, but less intimate than _-chan_. It can be used towards girls, but is not usually.  
**-obaachan** is used to address someone who is much older. In this context, "baa" essentially means "Honorable old woman." It's sometimes translated as "granny" but is actually very respectful, as long as the addressee doesn't mind being referred to as an old woman. The male equivalent is "_-ojiichan_"  
**-oneesan** is used to address a woman who is older than you and with whom you have a relatively close, familial bond, though blood relations aren't necessary. The word "nee" means older sister, "san" is a respectful suffix, and "o" is a modifier that adds respect to the word. Thus, saying "Temari-oneesan" is like saying "Big Sister Temari-san." The male equivalent is "_-oniisan._" Hanabi and Hinata use this with Neji, who is their cousin, to show their blood relation. An alternative, showing more affection, would be "_-(o)niichan_" like Konohamaru uses with Naruto, or "_-oneechan_" like Naruto uses with many older kunoichi  
**-sama** is used to express great respect and humility.  
**-san** is the most generic and safest suffix to use.  
**-sempai** is used to address a superior within an organization. Rather like "brothers" or "sisters" within a cult or coven. Roughly this can mean "senior" versus "junior." This is the "big brother/big sister" term. Its counterpart is "_-kouhai_" but isn't used nearly as much, because calling someone "-kouhai" can be taken as offensive or demeaning if you're not careful.  
**-sensei** is used to address a teacher, instructor, or an expert in a particular art. Also, _-sensei_ is used to address doctors.  
**-shishou** is used to address one's master in a particular art, such as martial arts, or in the case of Sakura, in the healing arts.  
(paraphrased and interpreted from source: Wikipedia's entry on "Japanese Titles")


	8. Part Seven: Homeward Bound

**Author's Note**: As stated in the prologue and first chapter, this is set way out from the start of the series, and is so far based on about chapter 360 of the manga, no further, since that's where the manga was when I started this project. Therefore, it's probably AU. Refer to the Author's Note in the first chapter for more details.

Also: this was supposed to be the last chapter before the epilogue, but it ran way too long, so I've split it down. There'll be another chapter after this before the epilogue.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own any part of "Naruto" or its characters. It all belongs to the incomparable Masashi Kishimoto-sensei. I'm just playing in the sandbox of this amazing world.

* * *

_"The flower which blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all." --proverb from "Mulan"_

* * *

**"The Flower in Adversity"  
Part Seven: Homeward Bound**

_Crash! _A large granite block slammed to the ground from a fall of ten meters up. It was only the last-minute whoosh of sand that billowed up and formed a cushion that prevented the block from shattering upon impact.

"Samurai," Gaara muttered under his breath, his hackles raised. "Bloody samurai."

"All brawn, no brains," Temari murmured with a sigh. "You can't move a rock that big with muscles alone."

"They're here to help us, you know," Baki admonished gently. "Don't be too judgmental."

"_That_'s not what I call helping!" Kankurou retorted, pointing at the cluster of Wind Country samurai uselessly trying to move the block. "That's making the problem worse!"

"Idiot," Konohamaru snorted, miming a punch at the puppeteer. "I'd actually hit you if I wasn't afraid I'd open your wounds."

"You shut your yap, runt!"

"He's almost fully recovered," Gaara said, letting his gaze sweep over his brother's form briefly. "Though, Kankurou, you no longer owe me any violent blows. That was beyond stupid and I haven't forgiven you yet for nearly throwing your life away for me."

In the fights against the various enemies, Gaara had gotten caught off guard when fighting Mist-nin, and he'd gotten separated from his familiar in the melee, which meant his automatic shield was gone at the time. He'd braced himself for the worst, when Kankurou had thrown himself in the way of an attack, taking a sword through the chest. The sword had miraculously missed his heart, and Sakura had been able to repair the damage to the lungs.

It was a week now since the Konoha contingents had shown up and the healers had stopped the plague in its tracks. A week since the physical attacks by Kirigakure, Kumogakure and Iwagakure had commenced. Iwagakure had retreated after only two days on the attack, realizing that they were dealing with a united front. But the Mist and Cloud ninjas had come a much further distance, and they were extremely stubborn; they had only recently retreated. With the other countries' daimyou getting involved, it looked like this war was at an end, at least temporarily.

All Suna-nin were now dressed in black, the mourning raiment. Gaara was in the process of exhuming the desert-buried dead, and the samurai from the daimyou's court were building numerous funerary pyres. The fighters from Konoha were either helping to remove the bodies from the sand, patrolling the perimeter to make sure things remained peaceful, or helping the civilians to rebuild homes and buildings damaged in the fights and in the massive freak sandstorm that had ripped through Sunagakure a few days ago, taking down dilapidated and unkempt buildings.

"How many more, Kazekage-sama?" Yamato wiped a line of sweat from his brow as he conveyed a pair of corpses using his mukon chakra.

"In your area? Less than a dozen."

"Geesh," the ANBU captain grimaced. "I can't believe you single-handedly buried all these people out there, and memorized where they are."

Gaara smirked slightly but didn't comment as he gestured at the desert, raising a column of sand in another area, where Gai and Kakashi were also retrieving cadavers from the sand.

"He doesn't know, does he?" Temari hid a grin. "Gaara doesn't have to memorize a thing. His affinity with sand means he knows where there is something buried in the sand that's not sand itself."

"How could he know?" Kankurou reasoned. "How could any Konoha ninja fully understand Gaara's sand abilities?"

"Silence, both of you!" Gaara snapped. The veins on his temples were starting to bulge with the strain. "Instead of standing here and providing me with unnecessary running commentary, why don't you make yourselves useful?" Temari and Kankurou refrained from speaking; they knew how Gaara was. When he got this exhausted, he tended to snap peevishly and somewhat uncharacteristically. He usually didn't let himself get this bad, but he refused to borrow chakra from Naruto for this procedure, insisting this excavation was his burden alone to bear. Jiraiya had offered to be the one to light the pyres with his katon chakra; the old sennin had enough chakra and control to light all the pyres in one shot, something even Kakashi couldn't do.

"Kankurou-dono," Shizune said from behind them. "If you'd like, Sanami-san is awake and alert enough for some visiting." She left unsaid what didn't need to be said: That Kankurou was a monumental idiot if he didn't take advantage of this, since the Konoha contingent would be departing tomorrow, and Sanami was to go with them.

Tsunade had sent word to them that she had an entire section of a wing in the hospital cleared and prepared for Sanami's treatment, and she was currently poring over all medical manuals she could get her hands on. It was news that Shizune found very comforting and strangely encouraging. This was exactly the kind of challenge Tsunade loved, taking on a tricky disease and beating it to the ground. Shizune's worst fear had been that Tsunade would be uninterested in attempting to treat the Suna kunoichi for whatever reason, but Tsunade's response had been more than just interested, even more than enthusiastic: the Hokage was positively salivating over this challenge.

That didn't mean that Sanami's survival was guaranteed, and there was no current estimation of how long she'd be away from Suna; Kankurou knew this too, and so he didn't hesitate when the invitation arose to visit with his wife and steal what few moments he could with her before she was spirited away to either her salvation or her doom.

Gaara didn't move a single muscle as his brother departed from his side. Suna-chan, sitting primly in the sand next to his left foot, sat up on her haunches, reached up a paw and touched his leg experimentally, warbling inquisitively. She moved like she was going to climb up his leg, but he made a sharp noise in his throat, forestalling her. She rested her front paws on his sandal and kept her gaze fixed on him with a single-minded focus, even as he shifted his stance, moving his other leg outward to give himself a little more support.

Temari felt a flare of chakra behind them and turned to see the three Konoha ninja that Gaara regarded highest of all -- Rock Lee, Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto -- approaching them. All three of them looked physically exhausted.

"Gaara, do you think you could take a break or something?" Naruto said with a gusty sigh as he flopped down against the sandstone wall. "We're all beat, and you look like you've been trampled. I'd give you chakra to help you out, whether you want it or not, but we're all exhausted from pulling them out of the sand. They're damned heavy, you know, those bodies! Hard as rocks!"

"Not half as hard as your skull!" Sakura smacked her long-time teammate over the head; "Dammit, Naruto, show some tact!"

Lee chuckled as he rubbed his neck. "Really, Gaara-sama, you should take a short break, and let the rest of us take one too. I for one am parched. I understand that you do not want to stop, but the rest of us need a break if we are to continue helping you."

"Right, right, okay, fine," Gaara said peevishly. "I get the message." He brought his hands to his sides, lowering his head so that his chin rested against his collarbone. The sand out in the desert calmed and settled. There was a distant yelp and the sound of sand dispersing along the ground.

"That was dumb," Konohamaru said. "You just buried someone alive!"

"They'll be able to get out," Gaara retorted, closing his eyes wearily. "Dogs like that can dig. And they didn't go far enough under the sand to be robbed of air."

"Hey what's the big fucking idea, Gaara!" Kiba's voice carried across the sand as he and Akamaru popped out of a hole they'd fallen in. "A little warning next time, dammit!"

"Konohamaru, go get some water for Kazekage-sama, eh?" Temari said. The ambassador pouted a little at being reduced to an errand boy yet again, but he didn't complain and took off with alacrity to do as asked.

Without saying a word, Gaara moved over and eased himself to the ground next to Naruto, leaning back against the sandstone wall with a sigh. "Damn, my joints are aching again. I hate winter." His familiar crawled up his leg and perched on his knees, gazing serenely at him with her bright black eyes.

"She sure is cute," Naruto said, glancing at the raccoon. Gaara didn't respond.

"How many more are out there?" Lee jerked his chin toward the desert to indicate the bodies being exhumed.

"We're about halfway done, I think," Temari said. "Right Gaara?"

"We'll be done by sunset, is all I can say," the Kazekage replied wearily, shielding his eyes from the winter sun as he looked up at it to gage the current time. "The pyres should be done by then too. We'll light them tomorrow at daybreak. I suppose that's fitting." Suna-chan chittered at him. "Yes, I know. But I can't do that yet. They haven't returned."

"Who hasn't returned?" Naruto tilted his head in inquiry. Gaara's eye twitched in response, as if in annoyance.

"... namida," was all the Kazekage seemed to say in response to that.

"Namida? Who is this Namida?" Lee inquired. "The name does not ring a bell."

Gaara gave him a withering look. "Drop the subject."

Sakura, who had been the one to overhear his one-sided conversation way back when, when he'd spoken of healing Sunagakure, heard the full sentence, "_Ore no namida_," and understood. She put a hand on Lee's arm when he reacted to Gaara's sudden hostility.

"I understand," she said. "If anyone can truly heal Sunagakure, it isn't a healer-nin like myself or Shizune-san. Not even my shishou, I don't think. The only one who can heal Sunagakure and return it to its former glory is you. Just don't rush it. Rushing through a healing all but guarantees you miss something vitally important and thus do an imperfect job."

"Hmm," the Kazekage grunted. "Thank you for the encouragement, but it's not that simple. Sunagakure is angry with me. Very angry. However, I think she will give me another chance."

The raccoon chittered again and hopped from Gaara's knees to his shoulder. Konohamaru returned about then with ceramic flasks of water for everyone. Naruto and Lee both swigged the water down like usual for them; Sakura drank much more slowly; Gaara sipped sparingly at his, a habit born of living in the desert all his life.

"Those pyres are so damned ugly," Temari grimaced. "Gah. I can't wait to tear them down."

"Speaking of the pyres," Sakura glanced over at the gargantuan structures. "Is this normal here? To do funeral pyres?"

"There isn't enough room in the graveyard for the headstones, let alone the graves, of all the people who died in this plague," Baki said. "We will commission a cenotaph with all their names and place it in the center of the graveyard. A mass pyre is the safest, most efficient and most respectful way to dispose of this many corpses."

"I think I know what you are getting at," Gaara said. "Chiyo-baasama's grave is still where it was; it hasn't been moved. Ebizou-jiisama's grave is next to hers."

"I'd been meaning to pay my respects to it," Sakura said with relief, "but I've been so busy. We all have. I owe her almost as much as you do, Gaara-sama. She used that technique to prevent me from dying. It's thanks to her that I was able to... well, do everything that I've been able to do."

The silence that followed was companionable enough that no one sought to break it. Eventually, Gaara stood up, moving stiffly, and resumed his position on the rampart, looking out over the desert. He sighed.

"Sakura-san, if you want to go pay your respects, you might want to do it soon, before all the pyres are completed. Like as not, the graveyard will be blocked by one of the pyres, or materials used to build the pyres."

Sakura took that for what it was: a passive order. Bowing her head slightly as she took her leave, she turned to go, glancing sideways to see if Lee was going to come with her. However, his attention was focused on the desert.

Skimming down the crumbling rampart stairs, Sakura landed heavily, tucking into a somersault to prevent injury from the impact, and rolling back to her feet. Swinging into a jog, she started in the direction of the cemetery, dodging samurai and debris as she went. A few of the cruder samurai whistled catcalls at her, and a couple made lewd suggestions, but she ignored them. One of the samurai tried to block her path, but his comrades pulled him out of her way before she had to get serious on him.

She grinned bloodlessly at the samurai as she passed. "Just a warning: do anything untoward to me, and my husband is liable to bury you with his own hands. With Kazekage-sama's help, too, I might add."

That had the desired effect: the samurai backed off. She then smiled winningly at them and continued on her course.

_Of course,_ she thought with a grin, _Lee wouldn't likely do anything to them; he wouldn't have to. But they can just think I'm a weak little woman who needs protection from her big strong husband._

Not that she would have minded being protected by him, even if he didn't fit the stereotypical "big strong man" bill. He was slim, short and wiry, but he was as strong as they came. In sheer physical power, only Gai-sensei had him trumped, and Sakura was convinced it was Gai-sensei's size -- both his height and his broad-shouldered build -- that gave him the edge over Lee.

As she entered the cemetery, she composed herself and began scanning the numerous gravestones for one in particular. There were many more gravestones than she remembered, but she was able to find the one she sought relatively easily.

Chiyo-baasama's grave was well-tended, with remnants of flowers and incense giving testimony to frequent visitors. There was also a tiny stone carving of a tanuki that sat at the very base of the stone, tucked off to one side.

"Hello, Chiyo-baasama," Sakura said softly as she brought her hands together and bowed her head in respect. "It's been a long time, I know, but I haven't had a chance to visit you in so long. I wanted to come pay my respects to you, and to tell you about the two lives you saved that day all those years ago." She touched the headstone gently, brushing dust and sand off it. "As you probably know, Gaara has been an extraordinary Kazekage. He has helped this village that you loved return to much of its former glory... at least, before this war with Kirigakure broke out. And he's managed to protect the village despite having three major villages harrying it. The people of Sunagakure love him, though. All the ambassadors have said the same thing, and I've seen it with my own eyes, a couple different times now. The people adore Gaara, more so than any other Kazekage, I think.

"It looks like Gaara probably visits your grave occasionally. I'm told by the first ambassador that Gaara greatly honors your sacrifice for his sake. That really was a noble thing you did, and we are all grateful, you know."

It occurred to her that she was rambling and starting to not make sense. She tried to push the thought from her mind.

"As for me, I haven't accomplished anywhere near as much as he has, sadly, but..." She involuntarily scuffed her foot in the dust. "Well, I did get married, just a week and a half ago. You probably won't remember my husband, though you did kind of meet him. He was part of the back-up team that helped us break the barrier that the Akatsuki put up on that cave. His name is Rock Lee. I do kind of have you to thank for this, Chiyo-baasama, since without you, I wouldn't have had a chance to discover how happy I can be with him. We're planning to start a family soon."

_Good god, I'm rambling. In front of a grave. This isn't like me at all! What the hell is wrong with me?_

A gust of wind picked up and ruffled Sakura's hair. _Don't think about it, Sakura. Just talk. There's nothing wrong with talking to a gravestone -- you're talking to the spirit that it represents. Chiyo-baasama expressed interest in my home life during the short time she had to inquire about such things back then, after we defeated Sasori and before we caught up to Naruto and the others._

"My parents are grateful," she said finally, looking up at the winter desert sky. "I'm their only child, you know, and they're thrilled that I'm married now and planning to start a family soon. They've been so worried about me most of my career, and when they found out about how close I came to dying at Sasori's hands... well, as a parent yourself, I'm sure you understand how they must have felt. It looks like my days of doing dangerous S-ranks are about over, and I'm okay with that. Lee and I have discussed what we'll do once we have children; we've both thought about becoming instructors in the Academy, for advanced students and genin.

"Naruto has become one of the most respected jounin in the village, and there is reason to believe that he'll be promoted to Rokudaime Hokage within a year. Since Tsunade-sama is far from feeble, still very much competent for the job, this is a real honor for Naruto."

Abruptly, she ran out of things to say. She felt insanely foolish standing here in front of a headstone, talking about inane things when she was surrounded by a village still badly stricken with plague, and littered with giant multi-level pyres that would soon be loaded with corpses in varying stages of decay... here she was, in a village surrounded by death, standing in front of a grave, talking about her plans for the future, as if the headstone gave a damn.

_What am I doing here? This is ridiculous! I shouldn't be standing around here like this, I should be helping. I've already paid my respects, I should leave._

She felt a strange shiver pass down her spine, as if a spirit were nearby, and for a moment she thought she could see Chiyo-baasama standing beside the headstone, smiling gently at her. A flutter of happiness tingled in Sakura's chest, as if the old kunoichi were trying to say _"I'm happy for you."_ The combination soothed her fractured nerves, ameliorating the tension that had been coiled up in her gut like a snake poised to strike.

Tears welled in her eyes. "Thank you, Chiyo-baasama. For everything, thank you. Someday, Lee and I will bring our children back here to Suna, to pay our respects to you again."

She touched the headstone once more and turned to leave. A familiar silhouetted figure was visible at the entrance.

"Feel better?" A voice she knew as well as her own spoke evenly.

"You followed me, eh?" She smiled at her husband, who leaned nonchalantly against the gate post at the entrance.

"Naruto-kun's orders. We are still in a war zone, and Gaara-sama has been so focused on exhuming the dead that it is entirely possible that some enemies have infiltrated. They both asked me to go with you, just in case you got ambushed and needed backup."

"Ah," she glanced up at the administrative building, atop which Shino was just barely visible, perched on a spire, communing with some bugs that had just arrived. "That makes sense, I suppose."

He straightened from the casual slouch and dusted some sand particles off his vest. Then, in an entirely in-character display of his gentlemanly nature, he presented his arm to her. She briefly pondered ignoring the gesture, but decided to take it for what it was, and threaded her arm through his.

The two of them made their way back to the front of the village, where the Kazekage was still exhuming cadavers from atop a tall rampart. Sakura leaned her head against Lee's shoulder as they walked. Lee silently dictated a leisurely pace, and she was in no great hurry either.

"Lee, can you promise me something?" She asked finally, after her mind had wandered into slightly-disturbing thought-territory.

"I can try."

"Please hear me out before you interrupt, too. I've been thinking off and on about this Hachimon technique of yours."

He glanced sharply at her, and made almost like he was going to remind her that he knew very well the consequences of using the Gates. She held a hand up. "I said, hear me out. This isn't about you using it, so much as it is about you teaching it."

He stopped walking, his entire attention focused on her. "Go on."

"I've been thinking about our future, and how we've been sort of planning to have children and all, and I was also thinking about what might happen if you were to teach that technique to our kids. I'm not saying you can't or shouldn't, but maybe you could wait until they're older than you were? I think Gai-sensei taught it to you way too early. It's a technique that exerts tremendous strain on the body, and a child's body is still growing."

There was a pause and he quirked an eyebrow at her. "So what exactly did you want me to promise you?"

"To not teach that technique to them until they're at least 18 or so, until their bodies are done growing. At least until a healer says it's okay to."

He blinked slowly; "How about I promise to discuss it with you before considering teaching them the technique? I was not really planning to be the one to teach them anyway; I would much rather let Gai-sensei teach it to them. He understands it much better than I do, and I trust him to be able to teach it to them properly."

"I just want you to promise me you won't teach it to them -- or have Gai-sensei teach it to them -- before they're physically ready for something that dangerous. I don't want to see them go through what you went through. I can tell you're going to develop arthritis here in another ten years, and it could get really, really bad if you're not careful. Please, Lee? Personally, I'd rather you didn't teach them that at all, but I also think that's unreasonable of me. So please, just don't put that kind of strain on them too early?"

"That sounds reasonable to me," he agreed. "I do not want them to suffer what I have had to suffer, either. As I said, I can promise to discuss it with you before putting them into that kind of training. Will that make you happy?"

"It's enough. Thank you, Lee." She hugged him. The two of them then resumed their stroll back to the rampart. "I also hope you don't teach them that Hope Lotus technique either, but I can't say as I'd be surprised if you do."

"Ah, I think I would rather see them be able to perform Asa Kujaku than Nozomi Renge," he winked at her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders affectionately, "but I see your point."

As they arrived back at the rampart, Naruto stood up and stretched; "Ready to get back to work, Geji-mayu?"

"Sure."

"Sakura-chan, you stay here with Gaara. Temari will assist us out in the desert. You can spell Yumiya-neechan when she gets tired." The three jounin took off without much warning.

Sakura blinked. Suddenly it was just her and the red-headed kage up here on this rampart.

"Damn," Gaara muttered. "This is ridiculous; the desert should be at my mercy!" Suna-chan sat up and started chittering excitedly.

"Is there anything I can do to help you, Kazekage-sama?" Sakura asked.

"Just watch my back," he replied flatly. "I can't afford to divide my attention."

Sakura crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, bracing her foot against it for balance. This promised to be boring.

"Come closer, Sakura-san," Gaara ordered abruptly.

She obeyed without thinking, moving to stand just behind his shoulder.

"In regards to the question you asked me a week ago, the answer is no, nothing happened. Rock Lee merely became a very close friend of mine -- nothing more. I cannot vouch for his own feelings, but he never behaved in any way that gave me any indication that he felt more for me than as a good friend."

He glanced at her. "I am telling you this now out of courtesy; I hesitated earlier because it was my opinion that you had to come to terms with things on your own. You should trust his word over mine anyway; he is the one you are living with, not me. I should remind you that he is not given to lying. It seems to me that you have come to terms with the rumors. That is all that they are: just ugly rumors."

"I know," she said. "I was being stupid, and I'm sorry. Yumiya-san smacked some sense into me."

"So that kunoichi is good for something besides growing plants?"

"That's not very nice, Kazekage-sama!"

"Then explain your comment."

"Well, you know how she's a lesbian, right?"

"No."

"Well, she is. Anyway, when she pulled me out to spar the other day, she smacked me around pretty good, and then gave me a real dressing down for trying to cheapen love. She said I was being frivolous and didn't understand how fragile love is, how easily it can be lost. When I asked her what she meant, she told me that all those rumors about you and Lee were stupid and unfounded, that she could tell there was never any romantic chemistry between you two."

"Her being a lesbian should have no bearing on her opinion," Gaara said pointedly. "If you mean to say that homosexuals know their own, you are being naive."

"No, that wasn't quite what I meant. I guess I should have also mentioned that she was in ANBU for years. She was what they called the Watcher. It was her job to watch for signs of weakness in morale, both in the enemy when in a siege, and in the home village when not. She's got an amazing sense of perception. In the same way that Shikamaru is a genius with tactics, Yumiya-san is something of a genius in reading people's minute actions and interpreting them. And her being a lesbian means she has seen how her partners try to behave like nothing happened, how they tried to behave like 'normal' people. She's seen ex-lovers who have parted amicably and how they interact, as well as ex-lovers who parted under different circumstances.

"Even though she hasn't been in ANBU for over five years, she still retains a lot of respect for her abilities as a Watcher. Hokage-sama still uses her for that purpose and consults her."

Sakura paused when she saw a vein on Gaara's temple bulging. "Am I annoying you? Or compromising your concentration?"

"No. This is merely exhausting. I am trying to undo almost two weeks worth of burials in a single pass; it is costing me dearly in chakra. It is hard to concentrate."

"I can help a little. I can't give you any chakra, but I can help alleviate that headache that you must be suffering from right now. That has to be distracting. Will you let me? You wouldn't let Naruto help you."

Gaara sighed as he lowered his hands from the hand-seal he'd been holding. "This will not interfere with my sand-jutsu, will it?"

"No, I'll merely be helping the blood vessels in your forehead to loosen up a bit, to alleviate some of the pressure. Your concentration appears to have constricted them; I'll just relax them and help them open up a bit. That's all. I'm not a Hyuuga, you know," she laughed self-consciously, "I can't really interrupt chakra-streams with my own chakra."

"You are wrong about that," he said blandly as she activated her Shousen no Jutsu and pressed a hand to his forehead. "You can break even the most complex genjutsu, both on yourself and on others. That in and of itself is proof that you can interfere with chakra. But thank you, all the same."

"Don't mention it," she said self-consciously, massaging his temples to inject her chakra subcutaneously, into his blood vessels. "It's the least I can do, if you won't accept any other help."

"This is my burden to bear."

"Yeah, I know, and that's what Naruto has said all along about bringing Sasuke home. And look who it was who stopped Sasuke in his tracks."

There was a dry chuckle that came from the back of Gaara's throat; "Now you're proud of him, huh? After railing at him for using that technique, you're proud that he used it to stop Uchiha Sasuke?"

"Just trying to keep things in perspective," she laughed. "My point is, just because you think this is your burden to bear, doesn't mean you have to do it alone. There. Finished. Does your head feel better?"

"Yes. Clearer. Thank you, Sakura-san. Now please step aside; I have work to do."

She did as asked, returning to lean against the wall. For a while she watched the progress out in the desert, but eventually she turned her attention to the multi-story pyre that was rapidly rising out of the bedrock. By now the samurai had made enough of these pyres -- each pyre could hold at least two dozen bodies -- that they were accustomed to the setup, so the construction was going pretty quickly. Sakura found it interesting to watch the pyres take shape, so long as she kept her mind away from the thought of what these pyres were for. Remembering why they were being built, rather than enjoying watching the construction (and all its little mishaps and near-mishaps) for what it was, made her stomach feel heavy with sorrow and her chest feel tight.

She became so engrossed in watching the construction of a pyre some twenty meters away that she very nearly missed when Gaara finally finished his task and leaned wearily on the rampart. The sun was slung low in the western sky; the clouds were stained varying shades of orange and pink.

"That's all I can do for now. I barely have enough energy to breathe," the Kazekage said laboriously.

"You idiot, you overdid it!" Sakura said in alarm as she caught him when he slumped. "Kazekage-sama, you should know your own limits and shouldn't go beyond them, except when the very existence of your village is at stake."

"Don't lecture me," Gaara snapped. "You have no business judging my actions."

"What happened?" Baki appeared on the rampart right then.

"He overdid it. He's run out of chakra entirely, I'm guessing."

The older jounin crouched down and pulled Gaara's arm across his shoulders to support him; "We'll get you to someplace where you can rest, Kazekage-sama."

Now that Gaara was in someone else's hands, Sakura hopped down from the rampart and jogged out to where Naruto and Lee were placing the last of the exhumed corpses onto a makeshift sand-sled that Akamaru was harnessed to. Kiba was sitting nearby, panting with the effort of the excavation, and wiping sweat from his brow.

"That was hella hard work," he panted as Sakura approached. "You had the easy job, Sakura."

"It was boring, though," Sakura made a face. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were all trying to shield me from doing any work."

"Actually," Naruto said, wiping a line of sweat from his eyebrows, "I figured you were the best equipped to protect Gaara in the event of a surprise attack, what with those chakra-punches of yours. Plus, you can see through just about any genjutsu thrown at you. You've got pretty good taijutsu and you can break genjutsu. Gaara's got phenomenal ninjutsu. The two of you have it covered, enough to send a signal. Besides, I didn't want to listen to Geji-mayu whine about how hard this was likely to be on you!" The blond jounin then laughed and ducked as Lee threw a punch at him.

"You be quiet, Naruto-kun! Like you would not worry about her too!"

"But he's got a point, squirt," Kiba said with a laugh, tossing a clod at Lee. "And by the way, Naruto -- what the hell?"

"Huh?"

"What happened to the scrawny, overstimulated little chump I clobbered during the first Chuunin Selection Exams?"

"Pah!" Naruto scoffed. "Who's the one who _kicked_ your sorry butt during those same Chuunin Exams? Which of the four of us here was the only one to actually win, eh?"

"Hey," Sakura laughed, "my match ended in a draw!"

"Yeah, a mutual loss," Naruto teased. "You didn't advance. I kicked Kiba's butt in the end, even if he did kick me around a bit. And anyway, Kiba, you forget that I've trained with Obaachan and the Ero-sennin. I got whipped into shape."

"You would have been 'whipped into shape' if you had had Gai-sensei as your jounin sensei, you know," Lee said, blowing a raspberry at his long-time friend.

"Ack!" Naruto threw both his hands out in front of him, as if to create a barrier. "A fate worse than death!"

The blond jounin then went face-first into the sand as Gai-sensei appeared abruptly behind him and kicked him.

"What was that, you little runt?" The taijutsu jounin grinned. "Think you're too good for me? Did you forget I'm better than your sensei?"

Naruto came up sputtering and spitting sand. "Geez, Gai-sensei, what the hell was that for?"

"You deserved that, you idiot," Sakura laughed as she gave Naruto a hand up out of the sand. "You can't even beat Lee in a one-on-one, what makes you think you're better than Gai-sensei?"

"Freakin' _sand_, in my _mouth!_" Naruto pouted, spitting sand still. "I'm just saying, I survived Ero-sennin and Obaachan. Let's not pour salt on that wound, hey?"

Lee rolled his eyes. "It sounds like you learned nothing from your actual sensei."

"No one said I was a great sensei, did they?" Kakashi said from behind them. "Never was up to snuff. I just lucked out with my students, I guess."

"Are we done bickering yet?" Kiba grumbled as he stood up and put a hand on Akamaru's head. "Everyone else looks like they're done pulling."

"Sakura, where is Gaara-sama?" Lee looked over at her, as if realizing she was there for the first time. "I thought Naruto-kun told you to look after him."

"Baki's taking care of him," Sakura said as they started toward the front gates, following the sand-sled. Kiba was coaxing Akamaru with promises of large slabs of meat when they got home to Konoha. "He was on the verge of collapse. He went over his limit; it's actually kind of scary if you think about it. The last time I saw him that exanimate was right after Chiyo-baasama revived him. He wasn't able to move properly for a while after that."

Naruto was still brushing sand off his vest. "Damn, Gai-sensei, that was a rotten trick."

Gai-sensei shrugged; "You dropped your guard. Ask Lee: I do that for anyone who's dropped his guard."

Once inside the village walls, they let the samurai take over with the corpses, sorting them onto the pyres. The rest of the Konoha contingent started to gather around where Naruto was, and Jiraiya approached them as the last sparks of daylight lit the skies.

"We'll be departing for Konoha tomorrow morning, after the pyre-lighting. Hokage-sama would like to be fully debriefed, and we have a couple of patients to convey home anyway. We've been here long enough. I think Kazekage-sama has things under control, and the daimyou are stepping in. We need to get home. I would advise you all to get everything ready tonight, because we will most likely be leaving shortly after sunrise."

Even though technically Naruto was in charge of this operation, no one spoke against Jiraiya, who was of a rank considered higher than Naruto's, at present.

"I bet Tsunade-sama is really hurting for Shizune-san right about now," Neji chuckled as the teams dispersed to finish their personal business. He walked beside his current teammates, though somewhat apart from them.

"Yeah, you're not kidding," Sakura laughed. "Shishou is an absolute wreck when Shizune-san is gone for more than a couple of days!"

"I'm looking forward to getting home," Neji added, stretching his limbs tiredly. "Lame as it sounds, I miss Sachiko."

"Not lame at all," Naruto said. "I'm looking forward to getting home, if for no other reason than to see the look on Obaachan's face when I walk into Konoha with Sasuke. Also, I want some Ichiraku ramen. This instant stuff just doesn't do it anymore."

"You would be thinking of ramen right now!" Sakura thumped him affectionately. "Me, I'm looking forward to getting home so my mom and dad won't worry anymore. Also, Mom wanted to fix a nice big dinner for us sometime after the wedding, and we never got a chance. She makes some of the best breads you've ever tasted, and she always incorporates that into big meals. I'm definitely looking forward to that."

"I'm just tired of all the sand everywhere!" Tenten complained. "Everything is so damned _dry!_"

"It _is_ a desert, Tenten. It is supposed to be dry," Lee reminded her, and ducked when she threw a punch at him.

"What about you, Lee?" Neji glanced at his teammate. "I know you like being here in Suna, but you must be eager to get home too."

"I look forward to some rest, and some more training with Gai-sensei." Lee grinned when everyone around him groaned and Neji commented that that was just like him. "Well, I need to build up my strength again. Gai-sensei is the best sparring partner for me because he knows my limits to the most exact degree and can push me right up to them without going over them."

"I'm looking forward to gettin' home too!" Kiba said, falling in with them; Team Shikamaru fell in as well. "In case y'all didn't know it, I gots me a new girlfriend I'm keen to spend time with."

"What!" Chouji and Ino both said at the same time. Ino elaborated indignantly; "But, Kiba, last I heard, you had a new_boyfriend!_"

Kiba grinned. "Heh. I haven't made up my mind which side of the fence I'm on, you got a problem with that? Setsuna was just too serious for my tastes."

"Well, _I'm_ looking forward to getting home to my flowers," Ino announced. "As rotten as it sounds, I'm tired of being around sick people all day! I just want to tend my flowers and be a regular ninja now for a while, not a medic-nin. Plus, I kinda miss my dad's dumb jokes."

"_I_ have a girlfriend," Chouji boasted. "I'm looking forward to getting home to see her. And I'm looking forward to Mom's cooking, of course. Enough of the trail rations. What about you, Shikamaru?"

"Meh," the jounin grumbled, hands shoved his pockets. "Can't say as I care. Once I get home, it's my turn to take care of the deer. And Mom has been utterly unbearable lately, since Dad got hurt so bad in that last mission. But it will be nice to not have to fight as much. I'm too lazy for this shit!"

"You really should never have become a shinobi, Nakimushi-kun," Temari startled them by replying. "You are so lazy that you complain about everything about being a ninja."

"Ah, bugger off," Shikamaru grumbled. "Not in the mood for you."

"Looks like the honeymoon's over," Neji muttered under his breath. Naruto snickered.

"Speaking of," Lee said abruptly, and scooped Sakura up into his arms, startling her. While their companions jeered them and catcalled playfully, Lee gathered his strength and launched himself up onto the roof of a nearby building. Leaving behind a bevy of whistle and bawdy comments, he carried his bride effortlessly over several buildings, and up the side of the Administrative building.

"What was that for?" Sakura asked, wide-eyed, when he landed on the balcony at the top of the Administrative building and set her down.

"We are still on honeymoon, after all, and I found myself rather desiring to be away from them. Is that a problem?" His pronouns shifted to the more aggressive, less formal forms, indicative of his intentions.

"You're an animal, Lee," she laughed, punching him lightly in the shoulder.

* * *

"You know, I have been thinking," Lee mused aloud. It was well into the nighttime. The waning crescent moon was visible out the window. The two of them had just finished packing their belongings, and were preparing to crawl into bed to sleep this time, rather than any other bed activities. 

"Did you get a headache?" Sakura teased gently, tapping his forehead.

"Now that is not very nice! I happen to be very good at thinking. Unlike you!"

"Ooh, burn! Also, totally untrue!" She laughed. "Anyway, as you were saying."

"Humph. Anyway. I was thinking about names."

"Names?"

"Names. Surnames, to be exact. Yours and mine, and those of our prospective children."

"I see," Sakura climbed into the bedding, shivering at how cold the sheets were. This building wasn't very well insulated. "I never really gave it much thought."

Now that she thought about it, though, it was a valid question (even if he didn't word it as a question). For all practical purposes, Lee was clanless, while Sakura belonged to a clan, though not a ninja clan. Her father was part of a well-known merchant clan that had some clout up north of Konohagakure, on the northern fringes of the Fire Country. Although not even close to being on a par with the ninja clans in the Leaf village, the Haruno merchant clan was still considered to be financially formidable. Haruno Noboru was a lesser scion of the clan, but he was still a part of it.

This meant that, on a hierarchy, Sakura was higher than Lee. Technically, that meant that their children should take her name and join her clan. However, she had never really thought much on that. When Lee had asked her to marry him back in the summer, after she'd accepted, she had told him she had no intentions of changing her name right away. Mostly this was because she rather despised his surname, but didn't want to tell him as such. But now that she thought about it, there was reason for her to not change her surname anyway.

She pondered this as he slid into the bed and pulled the covers up.

"You're essentially clanless, right?" She snuggled up to him, grateful for his warmth. Because of his high metabolism, he was always warm to the touch. "So, really, I suppose that means our children should take my surname. But, you know, I'm not necessarily opposed to yours." _Oh good, Sakura, lie through your teeth to him._

"Nice try, Sakura," he said. "My uncle used to say that the Rock Clan was an agricultural clan in the Grass Country. But I have had no contact with any relatives except him."

"I've been meaning to ask you about him."

"My uncle?"

"Yeah. You rarely ever talk about him. Is he dead?"

"I think so."

"You _think_ so? You don't know?"

"I never heard. He was very ill when I last saw him, shortly before I graduated from the Academy. A wasting disease. Considering it has been more than a decade since, I think it is safe to say he is dead. But no, I do not know for certain."

"Doesn't it bother you? He raised you."

Lee's face became impassive. "He provided shelter and essentials. I would hardly call that raising. He did not even bother to educate me very much. I was barely literate when I entered the Academy. My first year in the Academy, I spent long hours after class with Iruka-sensei, learning to read and write."

"How long were you in the academy?"

"Five years."

"That's not so bad! I think Naruto was in it for six. Of course, he had to repeat the final year two or three times."

Lee chose not to respond to that, instead pulling her close and pressing a kiss into her hair.

"Perhaps we should discuss this matter, of surnames, with your parents." He reached over and snuffed out the lamp next to the bed, plunging them into darkness that was broken only by stray moonbeams from the waning moon. Sakura shifted herself and moved her pillow over next to him. As they settled themselves into the mattress, slumber overtook both of them. It _had _been a long, hard day for everyone.

* * *

The pyre-lighting ceremony was a silent and solemn affair that didn't take very long, but was very, very emotional anyway. Afterwards, Gaara requested that all Konoha shinobi adjourn to his office. There, he dispensed a number of messages to be conveyed back to the Hokage. The one handed to Naruto was sealed with a special Kage-level seal, that only a village kage could break. Gaara stressed that that message could not fall into enemy hands. If it was in jeopardy, Naruto was to destroy the message; there was information contained in that scroll that could jeopardize both the Fire Country and the Wind Country in the daimyou alliances, dealing with treachery on the parts of the Mizukage and Raikage. Gaara was insistent that he'd rather the message be destroyed than fall into the wrong hands; he could always send another copy to Tsunade. 

The other scrolls were detailed reports of each team's contribution to the defense and restoration of Sunagakure, necessary paperwork that would speed the submission of an accurate report for such a highly-ranked mission.

"Which of you will be taking over the medical care of Fuuin no Sanami, from here until you arrive in Konoha?" The Kazekage looked at the healers in turn. Shizune indicated herself. Gaara then handed over a packet. "These are duplicates of her entire medical history, and what information we could find that may be of some use to Hokage-sama. It is the least we can do, seeing as she is taking one of our own in to treat."

Gaara then leaned his arm against the desk and propped his head against his hand; "I regret that I cannot spare Konohamaru to return with you. Although he is only a chuunin, he has enough chakra and strength to help defend Sunagakure for a short period of time if something happens to me, a possibility I cannot rule out. Temari and Kankurou are both still convalescing, whether they like to admit it or not."

Kankurou made a noise in the back of his throat, like he wanted to protest, but Temari shot him a warning look, and he quieted down.

Gaara was silent a long moment before he stood up laboriously. "Please convey my deepest gratitude to Hokage-sama for her prompt response to this. I do not know what I would have done had you all not been here to help. Like as not, Sunagakure would have been wiped from the map. As things are now, we are barely standing, barely surviving. However, at least now we have a chance."

The Kazekage dismissed the teams after that. There was a brief mad scramble as everyone made sure that they had all their personal belongings accounted for, and the healers made sure that their two invalids were prepared to leave. They met up in half an hour's time at the village entrance.

Due to the extent of Sasuke's injuries, which Hanabi had been unable to fully repair, the healers had decided that the safest way to move him was to have Yamato construct a sort of wooden cocoon around Sasuke, one that would keep him completely motionless and provide some level of support for his vulnerable spine. Yamato's ability to minutely manipulate wood meant that he could mold the wood around Sasuke's body exactly. Gai had been elected to carry Sasuke for the time being, and when he got tired, someone else would take over. At first Gai had complained that Lee should carry Sasuke, since he was the reason Sasuke was unable to move. Shizune had reminded him that Lee was still somewhat convalescent from his Sixth Gate attack, and wasn't really fit enough to carry nearly a hundred kilos of weight on his back. Kakashi had made an offer to do the honors, which had triggered Gai's long-time competitiveness to resurface.

As for Sanami, she was going to be riding her ninja horse Kurosuna, though they would be stopping regularly to tend to her illness. Although Sakura and Shizune had managed to remove the dangerous tumor and contain the diseased tissue in an attempt to stop the cancer from spreading, the cancer was still very aggressive and the "quarantine" required diligent reinforcing every six to eight hours. This would require both Sakura and Shizune, as well as probably needing one or both of the Hyuuga sisters. It was for this reason that the four teams would be traveling home together instead of separately, the manner they had come in.

As the teams gathered just beyond the gateway to Sunagakure, Kankurou approached carrying Sanami in his arms. (Amusingly, his little tabby cat was perched on his shoulder, in a manner very similar to the little raccoon Suna-chan riding on the Kazekage's shoulder.)

As they arrived, Gaara withdrew from the folds of his sleeves a sizeable scroll, and a kunai. Without a word, he unrolled the scroll -- which had a complex summoning script on it, surrounding the kanji "uma" in the center -- and handed the kunai to Sanami, who silently used it to scratched out a thin line of blood, which she then scraped onto the scroll.

Gaara took the scroll, set it on the ground, made a series of hand-seal gestures, and slapped a chakra-covered hand to the scroll, activating it. There was a sharp _bang!_ and a puff of smoke, and then Kurosuna appeared directly over the scroll.

Lee, standing a matter of feet from the Kazekage, squawked in surprise and jumped behind Sakura. This sudden display of fear elicited a roar of laughter from his companions. Sakura grinned at him. "Don't worry, Lee, I'll protect you from that big bad horsey."

He snorted. "I was merely startled, is all."

"My ass," Naruto chortled. "You're afraid of horses, even a ninja horse!"

The Suna-nin ignored the banter as Baki placed a saddle on Kurosuna's back and cinched it up, the harness jingling as the metal rings shook. The horse tossed his head repeatedly. Then, true to his equine nature, he lifted his tail and defecated.

"Gah!" Konohomaru said animatedly, covering his nose and mouth with his hands. "What the hell have you been eating, Blackie?"

"Don't call me that," Kurosuna clicked his teeth and pinned his ears back, stamping his left rear hoof in annoyance. "And I've been eating what I usually eat. Don't make me kick you, runt."

Kankurou gently placed Sanami into the high-cantle saddle and he and Baki began strapping the weak kunoichi in, to prevent her from falling from the horse. Kurosuna would take good care of her, but in the event of an emergency, the straps would hold her in if the horse had to dodge suddenly.

All this was conducted in relative silence. When everything was ready, Gai hoisted the heavy wooden "crate" up onto his back with a mutter. "Shall we go?"

Naruto hefted his pack onto his back. "I think so. We're all ready, right, guys?"

"Ooh, before you go, Naruto-niichan!" Konohamaru said. "Give my love to Udon and Moegi! I'm sure they're worried."

As Shizune gathered up the lead shank attached to Kurosuna's halter, Gaara approached the horse. "Sanami. I know you are strong. Please try to come back to us. We need you."

She looked down at her kage. "Oh god, Kazekage-sama, don't start crying, that'll start me crying!"

Gaara's forehead wrinkled slightly and he brought a hand up to his eyes, dashing impromptu tears from his lashes. "Ah. It looks like they've returned, after so long. I think I will finally be able to heal Sunagakure." He reached up and grasped Sanami's hand. "I will look after your husband. You look after yourself. I need you as badly as Kankurou does, you know. You are one of my few remaining jounin, and the only experienced scroll sealer I have left."

"I'll do my best, Kazekage-sama. If I'm understanding correctly, believing in Hokage-sama goes a long way to helping her be successful, and I have total faith in my own kage; I can have total faith in Hokage-sama."

"She'll be okay, Kazekage-sama," Kurosuna said with a toss of his great black head. "I'll make sure to deliver her safely to Hokage-sama, and then we won't have anything to worry about." The certainty of the horse's words, while misguided and somewhat oversimplified, was somewhat comforting.

"Let's get going," Naruto said. "We've stalled long enough. Gaara, we'll be in touch with you about Sanami-oneechan. Obaachan will take good care of her, I'm sure of it. She's saved each of us at least once. She's the best there is when it comes to healing." The blond jounin held out a hand to Gaara, in offering of a handshake. Sakura suppressed a giggle at the change in personality for both young men from the last time they'd parted like this, at the gates of Sunagakure. Gaara had been stiff, sore and confused after his resurrection by Chiyo-baasama, and had been virtually silent most of the time. Naruto had been nervous and slightly awkward; it had been Gaara who had initiated the handshake, using his sand to direct Naruto's hand. Now, eight years later, here they were, considerably more comfortable in their roles and with each other.

As they shook hands, Naruto waved his teams onward. "Good luck with your village, Gaara! Don't hesitate to call us again if you need more help!"

Sakura glanced back as the teams started off across the desert at a leisurely pace. Gaara had his back to them now, facing Sunagakure, even as Konohamaru, Kankurou and Temari waved goodbye to the retreating Konoha-nin. Sakura narrowed her eyes a bit as she looked. Gaara's shoulders were shaking.

Abruptly, she remembered abstract comments from the Kazekage, and it started to fall into place.

_Someday my tears will return to me, and I will weep for every life lost in this catastrophe; and I will atone for them all. Then we will heal. And we will rebuild anew... Thank you. I will not fail you again... Sunagakure is angry with me. Very angry. However, I think she will give me another chance._

She remembered Lee telling her once that the people of Sunagakure believe their village to be sentient. In the same way that Konohagakure ninja believed in the Will of Fire, the Sunagakure ninja believed in something Lee called the Soul or Spirit of Wind. They believed that their village itself was sentient and guarded them; in exchange for that protection, they served their village and their kage fearlessly.

It made sense now. For this level of a disaster to strike Sunagakure must have been a blow to the people. They must have felt that their village had turned its back on them. Gaara was taking responsibility for the failures and offering his grief as restitution.

It was rather humbling, really. The road that lay ahead of the Kazekage and all of Sunagakure was a long, hard road. And if the five daimyou couldn't reach an agreement about controlling Kirigakure and Kumogakure, everything could fall apart for the Sand village.

With that somber thought in mind, Sakura turned toward the east, into the rising sun, and joined her teammates on the trek home.

* * *

**Coming soon: "Part Eight: A Hero's Welcome" wherein the teams arrive home in Konoha, triumphant from their successful mission in Suna.**

* * *

**END NOTES: Terminology, for those who are a bit rusty:  
**"**Geji-mayu**" is what Naruto calls Rock Lee. It translates as "fuzzy eyebrows" or as the English dub anime calls it, "Bushy Brow" and is Naruto's nickname for Lee. He doesn't mean anything rude by it, and Lee doesn't seem to mind.  
"**Ero-sennin**" is what Naruto calls Jiraiya. It means "perverted hermit" or as the English dub anime calls it, "Pervy Sage" and is Naruto's nickname for Jiraiya. Jiraiya doesn't particularly like the nickname, but he seems to get used to it.  
"**Nakimushi-kun**" means "Mr. Crybaby" and is what Temari calls Shikamaru, much to his chagrin.  
**Hitai-ate** are the "forehead protectors" (headbands) worn by all shinobi with symbols of their home village. Because they can be worn anywhere, or not worn at all, I have chosen to use the untranslated word rather than the term "forehead protector" or "headband"  
A **kunoichi** is a female ninja. It is often used in the series as a synonym for ninja or shinobi, when talking about a female. Thus it's used here sporadically much as it is in the series.  
"**ore no namida**" means "my tears" ("ore" being a very masculine form of "I") 

**Hidden Villages:**  
**Konohagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Leaves" is the principle village of the Fire Country (Hi no Kuni), and is headed by the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade.  
**Sunagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Sand" is the principle village of the Wind Country (Kaze no Kuni), and is headed by the Godaime Kazekage, Gaara.  
**Kirigakure**: "The Hidden Village of Mist" is the principle village of the Water Country (Mizu no Kuni), and is headed by the Mizukage.  
**Iwagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Rocks" is the principle village of the Earth Country (Tsuchi no Kuni), and is headed by the Tsuchikage.  
**Kumogakure**: "The Hidden Village of Clouds" is the principle village of the Lightning Country (Rai no Kuni), and is headed by the Raikage.

**Chakra types:**  
**Fuuton**: wind-based chakra; weaker than katon, stronger than raiton  
**Raiton**: lightning-based chakra; weaker than fuuton, stronger than doton  
**Doton**: earth-based chakra; weaker than raiton, stronger than suiton  
**Suiton**: water-based chakra; weaker than doton, stronger than katon  
**Katon**: fire-based chakra; weaker than suiton, stronger than fuuton  
**Mukon**: wood-based chakra; a combination of suiton and doton; useable only by Yamato via his genetic link to the First Hokage.


	9. Part Eight: A Hero's Welcome

**Author's Note**: As stated in the prologue and first chapter, this is set way out from the start of the series, and is so far based on about chapter 360 of the manga, no further, since that's where the manga was when I started this project. And with recent developments in the manga, this makes it quite AU, alas. Refer to the Author's Note in the first chapter for more details. Like I said, I started this before all the crap hit the fan, and I'm not backing down now. (Also, Yumiya's comments about Minato is just me being silly. If they seem awkward, let me know and I'll axe them, I'm totally on the fence about them).

I'm not entirely sure if Jiraiya is in-character in this chapter when he's talking to Sakura, so any suggestions anyone might have would be much, much appreciated. I've pored over his character and any appearances he's had that might be a similar situation, but I can't find anything rock-solid, so I'm going with my gut.

This chapter ran long AGAIN. Guess what! there's going to be ANOTHER chapter before the epilogue. I really want to write the epilogue, but I need to wrap this up properly, and the files are running long.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own any part of "Naruto" or its characters. It all belongs to the incomparable Masashi Kishimoto-sensei. I'm just playing in the sandbox of this amazing world.

**Warning**: Coarse language. Yumiya's at it again! Expect F-bombs and other profanity or expletives. You dun been warned.

* * *

_"The flower which blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all." --proverb from "Mulan"_

* * *

**"The Flower in Adversity"  
Part Eight: A Hero's Welcome**

The resounding bark of a large dog echoed through the trees of the temperate forest of the Fire Country. A large group of ninjas moved swiftly through the canopy, clumped together in groups of three and four at a time. The dog and his master led the way, while the ninja riding a frog the size of a small pony brought up the rear.

"Come _on_, you lazy slowpokes! Akamaru says to get your asses in gear! We're almost home!" Kiba's voice followed the bark.

"Almost?" Neji retorted. "We've got a good four hours to go yet!"

"Yeah!" Kiba bounded from one branch to another. "And that's the last four of ninety-six! We're in the home stretch, guys! Pick up the pace!"

"Some of us are not in so huge of a hurry, Kiba-kun!" Lee called. "It is wiser to take it easy. We are all getting tired, after all." He traveled along at a lower level than the others, choosing to travel across larger, sturdier branches, since he couldn't use his arms to steady himself; his arms were employed holding a teammate firmly in place on his back. That teammate was particularly dear to him.

"All the same," Gai-sensei said with a gusty sigh as he matched strides with his favorite student. "I'll be glad to get home, hand this box of rocks over to Hokage-sama. This is bloody heavy!" He shrugged wearily to indicate the large wooden crate strapped to his back, that carried an injured passenger.

"Complaining, Gai-sensei?" Neji was one level above them, also carrying a passenger. Combined with the kunoichi being carried by Akamaru, and the Suna kunoichi being conveyed by the large black horse that galloped along the forest floor -- having grown tired of tree-hopping -- there were five incapacitated passengers being carried by fellow ninja or by summons. (Jiraiya chose to ride one of his summoning toads because he claimed his arthritis was getting to him. Naruto questioned that the Ero-sennin even _had_ arthritis, but everyone just humored the old ninja out of habit.)

Sakura, Shizune and Hanabi were only temporarily incapacitated, however. The repeated stops every six hours -- which had added almost a full day to their travel -- to reinforce the healings on Sanami and Sasuke were taking their toll on the healer-kunoichi, but this was the last stretch before they could hand their patients over to Tsunade-sama. As such, they had all poured a little too much chakra into their healing techniques, and subsequently had exhausted themselves. With home being only hours away, the teams had decided to forego waiting for the healers to recover, and instead had chosen to pick them up and carry them. Kiba had hoisted his current team captain, Shizune, onto Akamaru; Neji obliged Hanabi by carrying her on his back; and Lee carried Sakura.

Down by the forest floor, Tenten and Hinata traveled alongside the horse Kurosuna. Tenten watched for potential ANBU traps that might harm Kurosuna, while Hinata kept her Byakugan activated and watched for signs of attack or obstruction by the village. At the highest level in the canopy, Yumiya and Yamato criss-crossed the relative area of the teams, also watching for ANBU traps. Since the attack on Sunagakure had come with a warning to Konohagakure, it was reasonable to assume that traps would be laid to slow a potential sneak attack.

The teams traveled steadily onward, energized by the familiar signs that they were nearing the village. When they had about three hours to go, Naruto called a sudden halt.

"What is it?" Kakashi landed next to his former student.

"Something... I can't explain it, but I feel like we're being watched."

Neji activated his Byakugan -- he had the greatest simultaneous peripheral range of the three Hyuugas, though Hanabi had the ability to see the furthest out in a particular direction.

"ANBU," was his response. "They're just watching us. They seem to know who we are, and they're not interrupting, but they're watching us all the same. That was a smart move, putting Tenten down by the horse. They recognize their own instantly. It would be a bad thing to have the jounin entrusted to us by Kazekage-sama attacked by ANBU."

"I'll remind you which of us came up with that smart move, dumbass," Yumiya said as she dropped down to Naruto's level and glared at Neji. "Don't go heaping the praise on fox-boy here."

Neji set Hanabi, who was still groggy, down on a branch and moved to stand in front of Naruto. "Stand still, Naruto."

Intrigued, everyone froze and watched the jounin as he analyzed the area. Then, with a sharp movement of his hand, he sent a wave of chakra pulsing out, deflecting a thrown kunai.

"How disappointing. I wanted to see if Naruto-kun's reflexes had improved, but you interrupted that." A slim dark-clad figure of an ANBU ninja dropped down onto a branch about ten meters away. The ANBU removed his mask as he faced Naruto.

"Sai!" Naruto exclaimed, recognizing his one-time teammate, a member of ANBU who operated with the name of Sai now, and had retained that name since the complete dissolution of the Root division. Sai had a tendency to be crass, but he could be counted upon in a fight to be a good backup, they had learned.

"I'm here to escort you all back," he said simply. "We have a lot of traps set up close to the gate; I will guide you past them."

"Were there attempts on Konoha by the other villages?" Kakashi inquired.

"Kumogakure tried something briefly, but we caught them. Come on; it's best we don't waste any time."

"Just a minute," Gai-sensei said. "I've been carrying this thing for almost four days. Why don't you carry it now, Naruto? It's your trophy anyway."

"Complaining again, Gai-sensei?" Neji arched an eyebrow at his former sensei. "That's really not like you."

"The fuck do you know, Neji? He's a first-rate whiner!" Yumiya retorted. "You don't live with him. He's the biggest damn baby."

"I'll take it," Naruto said, helping the older jounin out of the harness of the wooden crate. "I've got plenty of stamina left."

"Lee," Sakura murmured into her husband's ear. "I'm okay now, you can put me down."

"You are sure about that?" Lee glanced over his shoulder at her, even as he stooped down to help her off his back.

"Yeah. I need to ask Jiraiya-sama something anyway."

"All right." Lee bumped her shoulder affectionately -- a gesture the two of them had developed in the past year since becoming lovers -- and turned his attention to the leaders. Sakura shook her limbs out to wake her body up, and hopped a few trees back to where Jiraiya sat on his traveling frog.

"Can I ask you something, Jiraiya-sama?" she asked as she landed.

"Sure thing, lass." His eyebrows danced mischievously.

"Don't even think about it!" She laughed. "Shishou warned me about your weaknesses! Don't think I won't use them!"

"Yikes, okay, okay." Jiraiya tried to look put out, but the twinkle in his eye betrayed his enjoyment of the banter. It reminded Sakura of when Tsunade had once commented rather offhand (she, Sakura and Shizune had been unwinding with a potent bottle of sake after a particularly unpleasant healing session) that her old teammate liked someone who could argue with him. Any woman who asserted herself in front of him was unlikely to be groped. (Shizune, who had been a few too many drinks to the good, had gone on a bit of a rant that "that old codger" had no respect for women at all if that was how he behaved.)

"So, you were going to ask me something?" The Gama-sennin inquired after an extended silence.

"I was waiting for something better than 'okay, okay,'" Sakura temporized, internally kicking herself for having gotten distracted. She had a feeling that her excuse wouldn't really fly with Jiraiya either, but she hoped he'd just let it slide.

He eyed her, and she got the distinct impression that he was weighing his options -- call her bluff, or ignore it.

Lucky for her, he chose to ignore it. "Right, well, as long as you don't deliberately tempt me, you're safe. I wouldn't want to have Lee throw open those Gates and try that same move on me that he did on Sasuke. Well, I suppose I'd like to see it, but not from the receiving end of it! Anyway, you were saying?"

"I wanted to ask you a question about Shish -- er, Tsunade-sama. Since you've known her longest. I didn't want to ask Shizune-san about it, because I don't want her thinking I'm doubting Shishou, but..."

By now the teams had started moving again, and Sakura hitched a ride along on Gama, placing herself safely out of groping distance just in case.

"If you're going to ask something treasonous, Sakura, be forewarned that I have no problem telling Tsunade about it, even if you tell me in confidence. I may not be the Hokage, but I do care about the village, and I won't let it be compromised."

_What the...?_ She gaped at him. "Do you honestly think I'd compromise the village?"

"I have to be suspicious if you're acting this way," the old ninja shrugged. "You want to ask me something about Tsunade, insisting I know her best, when you and Shizune have been her near-constant companions for the past ten years. Sorry, kiddo, old habit. Sennin can't be too careful."

"I didn't say that you know her best, only that you've known her longest. Shizune-san has said that Tsunade-sama has changed dramatically over the years; you've known her the longest, so you probably know what she's like on the deepest levels inside. What I want to know is, do you think that she will now promote Naruto to Hokage, now that he's fulfilled this promise to bring Sasuke home?"

Jiraiya looked appraisingly at her. "What are you implying?"

"Well, it just seems like it's too good to be true, that now that Sasuke's been retrieved, she's just going to hand it over to him."

"Oh, it won't be that easy or that fast! Apparently you're not aware of why she's been holding back all these years."

"Well, that's kind of what I wanted to ask you, in a sense."

Jiraiya was silent for a long moment. "Tsunade never wanted the position of Hokage. I can never, ever recall her even wishing for it, nevermind making it a goal. But her little brother, who was like Naruto in a lot of ways, wanted to become the Yondaime Hokage. However, he died as a young genin. Tsunade eventually became bitter after the Ninja wars dragged on and left the village to seek some semblance of peace. She had no intentions of ever returning, until Naruto and I tracked her down. Even then, when I relayed the offer of becoming the Godaime Hokage to her, she refused out of hand. She wanted no part of it, and had never wanted it.

"I suspect that Naruto changed her mind by reminding her of her little brother, but the real deciding factor was when Orochimaru threatened to crush the Leaf village. That's when Tsunade decided to step up to the challenge and take on the mantle of office. I had the distinct impression, right from the beginning, that she was only taking on the role and title of Hokage as a regent, holding the 'throne,' if you will, for her chosen successor to grow, mature and come of age."

"Well, Naruto's probably been mature enough for the position for a while, don't you think?" Sakura inquired. "Considering all the S-ranks Shishou sends him on, you know she trusts his abilities."

"There's been a little shadow hanging over that though, Sakura." Jiraiya's brows lowered slightly, giving him a more intense appearance. "The issue of Sasuke has been like a black cloud over all of you for ten years now. Naruto swore to bring Sasuke home, and he did so in such a way that he put it at top priority. Bringing Sasuke home became more important to him than becoming Hokage, at least for the time being. And he was determined to do it himself.

"The Hokage should not leave his village for any reason except by summons of the daimyou, or another kage. The only exception to this is if he leaves someone behind who can protect the village in his stead, someone of kage-level abilities. He should certainly not take off on random missions in hopes of finding someone. A village's kage should always put his village as his number one priority, at all times.

"In other words, if Tsunade had promoted Naruto any earlier, then Naruto would have been forced to give up his personal mission of finding Sasuke. I'm sure you know as well as I do, if not better, how well that would have gone over with Naruto.

"Tsunade would like nothing more than to retire from office, and when she does so, she's not going to hang around all the time. She's too much of a party animal at heart, and she's going to want to move around. And I'm not inclined to hang around any more than I ever was. Therefore, it's in everyone's best interest for Naruto to come to his own conclusion of the search for Sasuke before Tsunade retires."

"So now that he's done that, now what?"

"Well, now that that distraction is gone, he should be able to focus on the transition. Tsunade will most likely begin immediately to slowly transfer responsibilities to Naruto. Depending on how long it takes him to adapt to each transition, and how long it takes the Elder Council to accept him, he could be promoted in as few as six months, or in a couple years. It's all up to him now. And judging from how quickly he learned Rasengan, I rather expect he'll have no troubles being promoted within the year.

"Of course, as I said, Sakura, you've been around Tsunade for ten years now. I would think you know her well enough to understand that she means to pass the title on to Naruto. I'm not sure what has caused you to suddenly doubt her, but you should know in your heart that she's not going to deny Naruto his dream."

Sakura breathed a sigh of relief; it had been nagging at her thoughts for the past couple of days, after she'd had a particularly vivid dream in which Tsunade resisted handing over the title to Naruto. In retrospect, it seemed so out of character, and yet within the context of the nightmare, it had made perfect sense, and the shadow of doubt had been haunting her ever since. These past ten years, she'd watched Naruto overcome obstacle after obstacle in his quest for his dream, and in a way, she felt that her own hopes and dreams had gotten caught up in his. To see his dream dashed would be, in some sense, to have her own dreams crushed.

"You know, Sakura, you seem awfully concerned about Naruto. Kind of strange, given that you chose to marry someone else. One wonders if your husband might not be jealous to know you worry so much about another man."

"Lee knows how I feel about Naruto, so just leave him out of this!" She turned bright red and cocked a fist back threateningly.

Jiraiya laughed heartily at that and waved her on. "If you're done with me, go back up to your friends. I think Gama's getting tired of us scrambling around on him like this."

Sakura thumped the old ninja as she hopped off the frog. "That's for being an old pervert."

"It's one of the things I'm brilliant at. That and writing good novels!"

Sakura put on a burst of speed and caught up with Lee and Neji. Naruto was just ahead of them, with Kakashi and Sai flanking him. Yamato likewise bounded along with them, focusing his chakra on the wooden crate that held Sasuke immobile, trying to keep it as smooth for Sasuke as possible.

Lee greeted Sakura with a smile, and Neji just nodded his head in acknowledgement of her being there. It was pretty clear that he was focused on getting home as soon as possible. Sakura and Lee could understand his eagerness. His engagement to Yakushiro Sachiko, the daughter of one of Konoha's most successful tailors, was recent, and it was clear that he was very much in love. Being parted from her for over two weeks had to be hard on him emotionally. Occasionally, when he was particularly maudlin-feeling, he'd whine a little bit about how much he missed her; it usually didn't last long, however, because Neji hated looking bad in front of others, particularly in front of Naruto. Since he was a scion of a Branch family, with a sealed Byakugan, it was considered perfectly fine for him to marry a civilian, though Hinata and Hanabi wouldn't be so lucky if either of them was chosen as family successor for the Main household and tried to marry a "lowly" civilian.

Hanabi stirred on her cousin's back and said "Neji-oniisan, I'm okay now. We're not far from home; I'm recovered enough, I think."

"Nice try, Hanabi-sama," he retorted. "I can see that your chakra is still pretty low. Nope. In another hour or so I'll let you down. You should be recovered by then. But not before."

While the two of them bantered, Lee nudged Sakura; "What was your conversation with Jiraiya-sama about? Or do you not want to discuss it?"

"I was just confirming a couple of things about Shishou. I wanted to make sure that she wasn't likely to pull the rug out from under Naruto. She's been promising to hand over the title once he brings Sasuke home, and I was just afraid that she might not honor that."

Lee shook his head. "I do not believe Hokage-sama would ever do that to him. I do not know her as well as you do, I will admit that, but I seem to recall a certain ennui of hers with the position of Hokage."

"That's kind of what Jiraiya-sama said. I just wanted his opinion, since he's known her longest."

"Did the old perv try to grope you?" Neji inquired.

"No, of course not. He knows better than anyone else what'll happen. He's been pounded by Shishou before; he knows what it feels like to be hit like I can hit."

"Heh," Neji grinned. "He didn't see Lee open that Sixth Gate and blitz the hell out of Sasuke, but I imagine he has an idea of what it's like. I'd love to see that again, just to see how you did it, but there's no way I could ever condone you doing that to yourself again, Lee."

"I have no intentions of doing it unless there is no other way," Lee said simply. "It was much harder to do than I expected."

"I don't think you should ever open that many Gates again," Neji replied. "Every time you do, you damage one of them. The damage to your conduits is getting pretty bad. The next time you go to the Keimon, could be the last. You could end up forcing the Eighth Gate open. That's not a pleasant thought, you know. You _know_ what happens when that Gate is blown open."

"Yes, I know."

"None of you has ever seen it," Gai-sensei said from where he was, a level or two above them. "It's not pretty, what happens to a body when someone goes that far. It isn't just life-energy that's used up; the organs all explode, starting with the heart. The only person I've ever seen use the Eighth Gate successfully, is also the only person who ever successfully used the Gates for ninjutsu. And it was still not pretty what happened to him."

"Who was that?" Lee inquired, while Sakura just shrugged it off.

"Namikaze Minato was a genius unlike any I've ever seen," Gai-sensei said as a reply. "His brilliance makes even Shikamaru's intelligence pale in comparison. I suppose it should come as no surprise that he was the hero of Konoha then; only person I've ever seen use the Gates to strengthen his ninjutsu. The Gates, as you know, are primarily for taijutsu only, to give strength and stamina to a body that has already seen too much combat."

"Namikaze Minato?" Lee and Neji said simultaneously, unfamiliar with the name.

"Better know to you kids as Yondaime Hokage-sama," Yumiya said. "Damned fine man, too. In retrospect, I might have been persuaded to hit that. Only man who could have done so with me, you know. He was that fucking awesome."

Gai rolled his eyes; "ANYWAY." He glared briefly at Yumiya. "It is my understanding that that's how he managed to overpower the Kyuubi. Because the Kyuubi is so vast with its chakra, he had to increase his own chakra, and the only way to do so enough to match the Kyuubi was to open all the Gates. Since that sealing technique is fatal anyway, I presume that's why he did that."

"I'm a little more weirded out by the concept of Yumiya-sempai actually wanting to sleep with a man!" Tenten called teasingly from below, near the ground. "Was the Fourth Hokage really that sexy?"

"Oh you can't even imagine, honey!" Yumiya laughed. "He was, what? Twenty-five? Twenty-six? When he became Hokage? Oi, Kakashi-sempai! How old was your sensei when he became Hokage?"

"Hmm, I think he was about twenty-five or so. I forget. You do realize, don't you, Yumiya, that Minato-sensei's son is cast in his image, and is almost the spitting image of him?"

"Bah!" Yumiya scoffed as she did a somersault to avoid a trap that she spied. "The son is a poor substitute for the father. The whiskers are cute and charming, but... Minato-sama was amazing in his personality. You can't say that Whiskers-kun has the same personality, can you?"

Sakura's mouth opened and closed several times without making a sound as she tried to wrap her mind around that. There was only person she could think of that had what could be described as "whiskers," and there was only one person that Yumiya called "Whiskers-kun," but that meant...

"Are you saying that Naruto-kun is the son of our Yondaime Hokage-sama?!" Lee exclaimed, his eyes growing huge.

"You idiots didn't know that?" Yumiya chortled as Gai-sensei responded to Lee's question with a nod.

"Does Naruto-kun know this?"

"Yes," Naruto replied. "I've known for a little while. Came as a bit of a shock to find out, though."

"That explains why Yondaime-sama chose Naruto to seal the Kyuubi into," Neji said.

"Yondaime-sama was also Kakashi-sensei's sensei?!" Sakura floundered. "How come I never knew this?!"

"You never asked who my sensei was," Kakashi said simply. "I'd've told you if you'd asked."

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto laughed. "I can't believe you never asked!"

There was a crashing sound as the black horse, Kurosuna, launched up into the trees, with Tenten and Hinata close at his heels.

"Got tired of running on the ground, eh, horse?" Yumiya ribbed.

"Too many traps," Kurosuna said simply. "When I'm on the ground, I'm susceptible to horse injuries. In the trees, at least, if I stumble and fall, I have time to correct it before I get hurt."

Lee surreptitiously moved a bit, putting Neji and Sakura between himself and the horse. The motion was not lost on Sakura, who grinned but chose to keep her silence. She could tell by looking that Gai-sensei and Neji both noticed as well. Yumiya scoffed softly, but Gai threw a punch at her, preventing her from actually saying anything.

As they got closer to Konoha, the traps got thicker and more complex, requiring the teams to move closer together. More ANBU began to travel with them, just a few meters away on all sides. Almost like an escort...

Sakura began to watch Lee when she noticed that he was flagging a bit. She wondered if he was in pain -- his body was still not recovered from the beating it'd taken against Sasuke's Chidori Nagashi combined with the Sixth Gate attack.

She was tempted to call a brief halt, but they were by now within two hours of Konoha. And with all the traps around now, they were slowing down. (At full speed, they were probably an hour and a half from Konoha.) No, a stop now was kind of pointless. Lee wouldn't want to slow everyone down now anyway. She'd just have to baby him when they got home.

She turned her attention to the trees they vaulted through, keeping her eyes focused for tripwires. Even though there were ANBU with them now, that didn't mean there weren't traps that could cause serious pain if carelessly sprung.

* * *

Sakura hadn't expected to find the sight of the giant green doors of the gargantuan gate quite so welcoming a sight. She hadn't realized until now how much she did actually miss the village. Her heart leapt with joy at seeing those doors. And as the teams, now at a walk, practically in parade formation as they approached the village, came closer, it became clear that the entrance was jam-packed with villagers eager to greet them. As the teams came into full view of the village, there came a raucous cheer from the villagers. Tsunade stood at the center of the entrance, her hands on her hips, her silver-accented blonde hair fluttering in the wind. 

The cheers got louder as they approached. Lee had an arm draped over Sakura's shoulders and was leaning on her a bit, using her for support. He was physically very tired from the journey. In retrospect, they shouldn't have allowed him to carry her for two or three hours like he did. He still wasn't quite recovered; it looked like he'd need some of Tsunade's regenerative techniques to get him back up to speed (Sakura silently resolved to corner the Hokage someday soon and pry those techniques out of her). She was already going over some basic treatments in her head. Once she got a chance with him at home, she'd give him a good thorough massage, complete with mild chakra massaging as well, and perhaps some heated wraps. And some calming tea with mild analgesics and soporifics in it.

"Well, Tsunade, I've brought your successor home safe and sound, just like you wanted," Jiraiya said as they arrived at the gates.

The Hokage's eyes brimmed with tears of delight. "Kazekage-sama sent a bird along after you lot left. He had nothing but the highest praise imaginable for all of you. You've made me very proud."

"Just you wait, Tsunade," Jiraiya grinned. "Naruto has a present for you."

"That I do, Obaachan!" Naruto sauntered forward, and with Yamato's help, slung the crate down gently to the ground. "It took ten years longer than I expected it to, but I've brought Uchiha Sasuke home to Konoha."

Tsunade's eyes were huge with disbelief, and the crowd fell silent as well as people jostled to look and see.

"He's like this because he's injured," Naruto added. "He gave us a real fight, and we had to beat him senseless. He has some fractures in his spine, but the healers say it's not permanent damage. Shizune-oneechan gave him a medicine to keep him unconscious so he didn't feel too much pain during the journey home. He's reluctant to be here, but I didn't give him a choice in the matter. Told him he was coming home whether he liked it or no."

Tsunade looked over at the other shinobi who gathered. Slowly, she walked forward, stopping in front of each one and sizing them up. She paused for a bit longer in front of Sakura and Lee, and her eyes narrowed at Lee.

"Naruto, my boy, you have done very well," she said softly as she finished looking over the teams. "Everyone appears to be no worse for the wear for having taken on an elevated S-rank in Sunagakure. Lee looks like he needs some special treatment, but other than that, it looks to me like everyone has returned from that without any damage at all." She approached the blond jounin and put her arms around him in an impromptu hug. "Congratulations, Naruto, on a job very well done. You've done Konohagakure proud. And welcome home."

The crowd, which had been holding its collective breath during her rounds, erupted into loud cheers and whistles.

"Tsunade-sama," Shizune said firmly, "we have a patient here that we need to take to the infirmary right away. Her cancer is aggressive and has been causing Sakura and I some grief." She gently shook the lead shank on Kurosuna's halter.

"Indeed," Tsunade wiped her eyes and straightened her shoulders, motioning for some orderlies -- who appeared out of nowhere -- to put Sasuke onto a stretcher and take him to the hospital while she herself took over the horse's lead rope. "Naruto, Shikamaru, Yamato, Shizune -- I expect all of you in my office in one hour. I need some time to get these patients situated, and I imagine you all would like a chance to exchange greetings with your friends and families. I would prefer for your teams to be there as well for a full debriefing, but the captains are fine. I will accept a verbal report for today, but I expect full written reports in the next couple of days." She glanced over at Sakura. "Sakura, I'll expect you in my office in an hour as well; I'll need your verbal report too. I will leave Lee's care in your hands at this time, but I do want to have a look at him before the day is over. He looks like he's been done over pretty good."

Amidst the crisp affirmative replies from the various shinobi, Tsunade turned to Sanami, who listed in the saddle of her horse. She gestured for another stretcher and pair of orderlies. Kurosuna dropped to his knees to make Sanami's dismount a little smoother and Kiba gave the ill kunoichi some support. "All right, Kazekage-dono sent me as much information as he could dig up on your condition, Sanami," Tsunade said gently as she and Kiba transferred Sanami to the stretcher. "Let's see what we can do for you. Relax and have some faith in me, I've dealt with cancers before."

Sanami smiled wanly; "I have complete faith in my Kazekage-sama. If he trusts you, then I can place my faith in his trust." She grimaced in pain at a momentary spasm.

Tsunade gave brief instructions to the orderlies, and then she and Shizune started toward the hospital, following the orderlies.

The crowd took that as a cue, and swarmed out around the teams as friends and family greeted the returning shinobi. Neji was almost attacked by his anxious fiancée, and by his three students, the two genin and the chuunin. Hyuuga Hiashi greeted both of his daughters with massive hugs, something he had never done before with either of them. Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji were all cornered simultaneously -- and in a group -- by their overjoyed families. Kiba was tackled by his older sister Hana. Shino was rather quietly greeted by his father, but it was clear that even Aburame Shibi had been concerned. Naruto was swarmed by Udon and Moegi, clamoring for word about their teammate Konohamaru, and Iruka-sensei joined the fray as well, giving Naruto some well-earned congratulations for succeeding in the mission.

"I don't get it," Sakura said, mystified as she and Lee moved off to one side, accepting congratulations from people she didn't know so well, and some she knew only casually. "Look at the way they're greeting everyone. It's like you'd think they expected all of us to die."

"I wonder that as well," Lee said as he leaned against one of the gate doors.

"This was an S-rank," Gai-sensei pointed out, "which is generally reserved for extremely experienced jounin, or sennin- or kage-level shinobi. We were trying to prevent the complete destruction of one of the five major ninja villages. I imagine that they expected there to be some casualties."

"Sakura!" A familiar voice boomed, and Sakura's heartbeat quickened. She saw Lee's gaze swivel as well in the direction of the shout, and a knowing smile creased his tired face. The throng of people parted as Haruno Noboru muscled his way through, followed closely by his wife Tsubaki.

Tsubaki flung herself at Sakura, bursting into tears as she did. "Thank god you're safe, sweetie! I was so scared!"

Sakura gasped inadvertently as her mother squeezed her. "Mom, geez! You're cutting off my air!"

"What happened?" Lee asked as Sakura managed to wriggle free of her mother's grasp, only to get caught up by her father. "Did someone send news that we were all dead?"

"Well, no," Tsubaki said as she wiped her eyes, and then gave Lee a hug as well, though she was considerably gentler with him. "But the rumors were that only about a third of you were expected to survive and return, and that no one was expected to come out of this unscathed, this being an elevated S-rank and all."

Lee frowned. "It was definitely dangerous, I will not deny that, and there were a number of attempts on Kazekage-sama's life. But I do not believe that we were in any real danger once Sasuke-kun was taken care of. We did have Jiraiya-sama along too, and he should count for an entire squad, I would think. Between him, Gaara-sama and Naruto-kun, the majority of the fighting was out of our hands. Though, I have been thinking, Sakura..."

"About what?"

"I think that when I am fully recovered, I owe Naruto-kun a good solid punch in the face for endangering you."

Sakura had managed to worm her way out of her father's crushing embrace and turned to Lee. "What do you mean?"

"Naruto-kun is proficient in fuuton chakra. Sasuke-kun's Chidori Nagashi is raiton."

She blinked slowly; "I'm afraid I'm not quite following."

Gai-sensei chuckled. "You're forgetting how elemental chakra works, aren't you, Sakura? Raiton trumps doton. Doton trumps suiton. Suiton trumps katon. Katon trumps fuuton. And --"

"Fuuton trumps raiton," Lee interrupted forcefully. "There is no reason why he should not have been able to cut through Chidori Nagashi with a Fuuton Rasengan."

"The problem is, Naruto didn't want to hurt or kill Sasuke, and Fuuton Rasengan is extremely potent, much more so than the regular Rasengan. Using it against Sasuke could have had some pretty dire consequences. And don't even suggest Fuuton Rasenshuriken. If Naruto ever uses that again for anything other than protecting the village, when all else has failed, I will _kick his ass_." Sakura's fists clenched involuntarily. "I've told you, haven't I, what using Rasengan with wind release does to Naruto's arm? If he uses it too much, he'll end up destroying his chakra channels in his arms."

"Nevertheless," Lee replied insistently, "Rasengan is not the only wind attack he has. And you nearly died. Had Kankurou-san and Gaara-sama not been so quick and so good with the kawarimi jutsu, I would be widowed right now." That garnered a squeak from Mrs. Haruno. "That is, to some degree, why I went to such lengths to stop Sasuke-kun. I admit I was angry, and scared. I could not bear the thought of what he might have done, had someone not pulled you out of his grasp."

Sakura bit down on a bitter retort. He had a point, she had to admit. "I was taken by surprise, Lee. You know that. I'm not a weakling. We've all been taken by surprise before. Hell, look how many times Gaara got ambushed and caught off guard."

"I never said you were a weakling," he shifted. "But Naruto-kun should have been able to cut through his raiton. He should have been able to overpower Sasuke-kun, given his nearly-limitless chakra."

"You're forgetting something, Lee," Gai-sensei said. "Sasuke was holding off more than half a dozen experienced jounin. We couldn't land a single hit on him. We _all _had trouble fighting Sasuke because of that lightning shield he made. Fuuton alone isn't going to entirely undo a shield like that. It's amazing to me that you were able to take him on single-handedly like that."

"I have you, Neji and Tenten to thank for that," Lee said, tilting his head back and looking skyward. "Tenten taught me how to use wires on shuriken, and Neji taught me how to release chakra. And you taught me how to ignore pain; I never even felt his lightning shield, or whatever that was. I waited until it looked like Sasuke-kun was running out of stamina. His shield was starting to flag a bit by that point."

"Hey, by the way! I want it going on the record that I couldn't stop you from opening those damned Gates!" Neji said crossly from some distance away. "No fair blaming me, I couldn't move at the time! Dammit, I didn't even get a chance to attempt the sake Gai-sensei gave me! It all happened so bloody fast!"

Haruno Tsubaki had her arms around her daughter. "What the hell happened in Sunagakure? What are you all talking about?"

"Lee was the one who took down Sasuke," Sakura said.

"I thought Naruto said he was the one who did it?" Noboru frowned.

"He didn't say that. He might have implied it, but he didn't actually say that. He wouldn't take outright credit for someone else's doing. And besides, Naruto's the reason Sasuke came home, but Lee is the reason we're all still alive -- including the Kazekage."

"I have to admit, though," Gai-sensei said, "that it scared me when Sasuke put that sword to your throat. I honestly thought you were a goner. Kakashi said he's pretty sure it was Kankurou who did the Kawarimi that saved you."

"That is one of his specialties," Lee said. "I imagine Gaara-sama merely provided the distraction." He pushed off the gate and approached Sakura, who had just managed to squirm free of her mother's arms yet again. He put his hands on her shoulders and rested his forehead against hers.

"I do not want to lose you, Sakura."

"I'm not going anywhere, you know," she retorted. "That was a week and a half ago, that instance. You've been fine with it for all this time, but now that we see my parents, you flip out?"

He lowered his voice. "I have _not_ been fine with it. It has been haunting me ever since it happened. I have been dealing as best I can, wanting nothing more than to do as your parents have done. You will have to forgive me for my momentary weakness. I am not entirely certain that I am as angry with Naruto-kun as I am with myself for being powerless to help you at that time."

She felt a rush of love for him. It really was hard to stay mad at him, when he looked so melancholic. Failure was something Lee couldn't stand, and for him to have felt like such a complete failure at protecting her, the single most important person in his life... she could see how this would be hard for him to deal with.

He swayed slightly; "I think we should keep moving. I am really, really tired. I may not last much longer if I have to stand around idly."

Sakura looked over at her parents. "Mom, Dad, we'll stop by later. I have to give a verbal report to Tsunade-sama, and she wants to take a look at Lee before I take him home for the day."

Noboru nodded in acceptance. "You know where to find us. Ayame-chan should be home with some more grains for the bakery any time, and she'll be thrilled to see you."

Sakura waved to them as she and Lee started off down the main street, toward the administrative building. Once he got his momentum back, Lee seemed fine, though she could tell by the droop of his eyelids that he was considerably more tired than he was willing to admit. He had trained his body for so many years that it was most comfortable and accustomed to motion, and therefore he seemed at ease. Gai-sensei insisted that his favorite student could even doze while jogging; Sakura had yet to see that in action, but she did think that Lee had developed an ability to conserve energy and stamina at certain speeds. It was no surprise that he wanted to keep moving rather than stand around, when he was this tired. At least in motion he could give the appearance of being alert. She knew intrinsically that once he sat down, he was going to be down for a while.

They moved slowly but steadily, threading through the crowd of people. She kept her arm firmly around his waist, offering him surreptitious support. Meanwhile, her mind wandered, as it had been doing so much lately. Especially in light of the confession Naruto had made last night, and the bizarre twist of events that had happened because of it...

* * *

_"If you don't mind my saying so, Sakura-chan," Naruto said with a tilt of his head as he handed Sakura a mug of tea, "you really look like hell."_

_"Thanks alot, I do mind you saying so," Sakura grumped. She was stiff and sore, drained of chakra but unable to sleep. Lee was sound asleep next to her, Neji dozed nearby, and the other teams were scattered around the campfire. Jiraiya was scouting the perimeter at present, with Yumiya and Yamato in the trees overhead watching the skies. They were about a day's travel from home now, or maybe less, and she was starting to really yearn to get home. These frequent stops to heal Sanami and Sasuke were getting draining._

_Shizune groaned and rolled over, apparently also very stiff and sore from expending so much chakra. Naruto crouched down next to Sakura, watching silently as she nibbled on a trail-bar and drank her tea. Occasionally she would glance down at Lee, as if ascertaining that he was still breathing, though he was clearly fine. His chest rose and fell steadily with his breathing._

_Naruto bit his lip slightly. He finally, screwing up his courage, put his tea mug down and grabbed Sakura's arm. "I need to talk to you about something, Sakura-chan. I want to do it in private too. Come on."_

_She only marginally protested, being mostly just startled, as he dragged her along behind him a fair distance until they were out of sight and earshot of the campsite. As he let go of her, he started pacing slightly, his words coming out in a jumbled gush._

_"Listen, uh, there's something I've been trying to say to you for a long while, but haven't quite had the right words to express it. Now I think I do. It... it's kind of complicated, so if you'll bear with me..."_

_"I'll try, Naruto -- I'm really tired, so I can't guarantee you that I'll be able to follow."_

_"Fair enough. You asked me a few days ago, a day or two before we left Sunagakure, if I was still focused on being Hokage, after seeing what Gaara has had to go through as Kazekage, after seeing what kinds of things a village kage has to endure for the sake of his village. I couldn't answer you honestly in detail at the time, but now I can._

_"I still desire to be the Hokage because, like Gaara, I love my home. It took me a while to be able to put that to words, but Konohagakure is something that I love. Not just the location, but the whole village -- the people in it, too -- and I want to protect it. Like Sandaime-jiichan did, like Yondaime-oyaji did, like Godaime-baachan is doing. Like Gaara is doing for his village. I know I can do it, and I want to do it. I don't know if it's the will of the village that's causing me to want to do it -- you know, like they say the Soul of Wind compels the Kazekage, or whatever -- but I want to. It's not just my dream anymore, Sakura-chan, it's something I almost _have _to do."_

_He stopped and turned to her. "Which brings me to what I've been meaning to say to you for a while now. It has to do with you and me."_

_Here he was silent a moment, rubbing his neck as if in self-consciousness. "Look, please don't think less of me for saying this, because it's how I feel, and I don't want there to be any misunderstandings between us."_

_When he again paused, Sakura nudged his shoulder with her fist. "Come on, spit it out. I can't hurt you right now, can I? Drained of chakra as I am?"_

_"My feelings for you haven't changed all these years, Sakura-chan," he said softly, with feeling. "I still love you as much as I ever have. It could be so easy for me to give in to jealousy that Geji-mayu won you first."_

_It felt like her heart was grinding to a halt in her chest. This was the last thing on earth she wanted to deal with! She had hoped he had been honest when he'd told her months ago that he was perfectly fine with her relationship with -- and subsequent marriage to -- Lee._

_"But," he said, and smiled sheepishly, "I'm not that bad. I understand that you chose him, and that I need to respect that. I know that, in my head. My heart says otherwise, but I can accept that. I understand and am glad for your happiness with someone like Geji-mayu. If it can't be me who sleeps beside you, who guards your dreams, then he is the best person I've ever met to do so._

_"And now I have another reason to be happy that you're with him. Because now I understand at last what it means to be a village kage. It means my number one priority must always be my village. Which means that if I were your husband, I wouldn't be able to give you the attention I think you deserve, because my first priority must always, always be Konohagakure. But Geji-mayu will always put you and your happiness first. And that's the way it should be. I think that through him, I can love you guiltlessly."_

_He stepped close, so that his face was mere inches from hers. "Understand this, Sakura-chan. You are my first love, and my greatest. But the calling of Hokage is greater still, and I cannot ever jeopardize Konoha for one person. Also, I do care very much for Geji-mayu too, so I mean him no ill will, and will not do anything to jeopardize his life. And I mean nothing threatening toward either of you when I do this --"_

_Without warning, he leaned forward, and Sakura belatedly realized what was going on when his lips connected with hers. It was far too late to dodge the kiss now. She stood rooted to the spot, shocked senseless. All her inner senses screamed at her to do something -- hit him, slap him, push him away -- but she couldn't make her body do anything. And this wasn't an overly chaste kiss either -- he was going for the whole nine yards with it. She didn't want to admit it to herself, but her traitorous body was almost enjoying this, illicit though it was. Well, she didn't have to _like_that she was enjoying it to some degree. In fact, it made her all the more angry that she couldn't do anything except let it happen. If she'd had enough chakra for it, she would've pounded him flat and folded him five ways. _

_"You are so dead when I get my strength back, Naruto," she hissed when he stepped away. "I swear I'll pound you concave! I'm a married woman, you can't go taking liberties like that with me! I can't imagine that my husband would be too thrilled to learn someone else was kissing his wife. Especially taking advantage of her being drained of chakra in order to do so!"_

_Naruto laughed and dodged when she threw a punch at him. "I've always wanted to kiss you, Sakura-chan, I've just been too chicken to do it before now. Besides, now that you're married to him, it's less risky, I figure, since you're unlikely to call off the wedding now that it's over with just because of some random kiss."_

_"You think I'd've called it off if you did this before the wedding? More likely you'd be in the hospital for a month for attempting it! Ooh, you are _so dead _when I get my strength back!"_

* * *

Sakura shook her head as the impromptu stroll down memory lane subsided. She didn't want to tell Lee about the whole incident, and yet she felt she owed it to him. They really shouldn't have any secrets between them, she figured, and it wasn't her fault Naruto had done that. Still, she hadn't fought him off, even though she'd wanted to. 

Now was as good a time as any to tell Lee about this.

"You know, I'm being kind of hypocritical, I suppose," she said as an opener.

Lee cocked an eyebrow at her, inviting her to elaborate.

"I owe Naruto a punch in the face too."

"What for? It was my failing, not yours."

"Not for that," she made a gesture with her hand, and wondered if she was trying too hard. She could see that he was definitely intrigued, since she was behaving unusually. "For taking liberties with me that he shouldn't, when I had no chakra with which to retaliate."

Lee halted abruptly, digging his heels into the dirt of the street. "What are you talking about, Sakura? This is Naruto-kun we are talking about. There is no one he reveres more highly than you!" He sounded accusing.

For a moment Sakura feared that Lee would accuse her of leading Naruto on. But she had already dropped the bomb, in a manner of speaking. It was only a matter of time before impact. She had to just go with it, really.

"It's complicated Lee, and I hope you won't think less of me for this, because it wasn't my idea, and I didn't give him permission for it. I told him that if I'd had proper chakra, I'd've pounded him concave."

Lee shook his head abruptly. "This is too confusing. What happened?"

She took a deep breath; "Last night, he told me that he still loved me, and then he kissed me. I -- I didn't want it to happen. Believe me, I wanted to fight him off, but... I mean, like you said, this is Naruto we're talking about. He does things spur of the moment. Kakashi-sensei always called him the Number One Unpredictable Knucklehead."

"Is that all that happened? He just kissed you?" Lee looked like he couldn't believe she was this worked up over it.

"Well it wasn't exactly a mere friendly kiss. It was..." she turned bright pink in memory, "you know, pretty... um... you know, open-mouth and all. Tongue involved. That kind of thing. I tried to fight him off, but I was too tired to do anything," she added defensively. _Well that wasn't quite true... it wasn't that I was tired, it was that I couldn't make my body do anything._

Lee put his hands on his hips. "Well, while that is hardly what I would consider okay, I fail to see why you are so upset and afraid. Do you think I am likely to leave you over this? Because I have news for you: you are going to have to try much harder than that to get rid of me!"

"I don't want to get rid of you!" Her jaw dropped open. "I told you, he's like a brother to me. It's just, that feeling appears to not be mutual, quite. And I felt like you deserved to know about it, because I didn't want to feel like someone could blackmail me with it."

He snorted good-naturedly. "You? Blackmailed? Somehow, I highly doubt it." (She abstractly noted that he used an especially affectionate pronoun for "you" when he said this, more so than he usually did; he also used a more generic pronoun for "I" than he usually did, using the same term her father tended to use, which was the most generic and non-gender-specific of them all. This had to be the first time he'd ever done this, to her recollection.)

After a long silence in which the two of them observed each other wordlessly, while people all around them continued to come and go along the street, Lee made a flippant gesture. "Well, we can address this issue more in private; otherwise, I think that this is all, as Yumiya-san says, water under the bridge. We should continue on, or we may be late to Hokage-sama's meeting."

* * *

They were still the last ones to arrive in Tsunade-sama's office, despite having plenty of time to get there. This was partly because they had gotten waylaid by some friends of theirs who had been ecstatic to see them. 

Tsunade gave them a _Look_ as she leaned against her chair, but said nothing before surveying the room. "Everyone's here, huh? All right, we can get started. I'll make this as quick as possible, since I'm sure you all don't want to stand around all afternoon. I'm sure you're all tired. So let's get started."

She gathered together the unrolled scrolls on her desk. "First order of business is that of the two patients brought home. Uchiha Sasuke is in excellent condition, considering the extent of his injuries. He should make a full recovery within two weeks or so. It would probably be quicker if I chose to operate on him, but the operation is risky, and he stands to make full recovery without it anyway. However, there is no indication that he wishes to resume the shinobi lifestyle. He speaks of leaving the village again, to find his own way in the world."

Naruto cursed softly under his breath as Sakura and Lee arrived at his side. "Figures. I thought he caved too easily."

Tsunade looked pointedly at Naruto; "If he leaves again, will you pursue him?"

"No," Naruto said, "not if he leaves for that reason. The reason I chased him for so long was that I felt he left us before for all the wrong reasons. But if he really doesn't feel like he belongs, and wants to live as a civilian elsewhere, I don't think I have the right to make the decision to override that."

There was a collective sigh of relief.

"Good," Tsunade said. "Now, the other patient. Most of you are aware of the gravity of Fuuin no Sanami's condition. Well, I think I shall inform you all here and now of my current diagnoses. The good news is that she is in relatively stable condition and is not likely to die, except from an unforeseen complication. The bad news, however, is that she is incurable at this time. I cannot remove the cancer and prevent it from coming back; the cancer is too aggressive. I can put a stop to its growth for now, and give her quality of life for a while, but with it as aggressive as it is, it will come back, sooner or later."

Kiba bared his teeth in dismay as Sakura and the other medic-nins groaned in frustration. It had been a slim hope, but they had hoped all the same that Tsunade could save the Suna-kunoichi.

"Hold on a moment," Tsunade said with a smile. "This is not a death sentence for her. I can extend her life healthwise almost indefinitely by way of repeated treatments. And perhaps down the line she will become curable. I believe that if she continues to do well, I can send her home in a couple weeks, and have her come back in four to six months for another treatment. She will be able to return to a civilian lifestyle -- and perhaps can begin teaching at the Suna Academy. She is a scroll-sealer, so she can also resume that. She is not completely shut out of service to her beloved Kazekage. So, the news, while not what some of you may have wanted to hear, is not particularly bad. It's just that I cannot do this in one go. This will take years to treat. Something that has taken this long to develop is not quickly disposed of, after all."

Sakura sighed heavily in relief, leaning against her husband as she did so. "I'm glad, Shishou. Sanami-san seems so determined to help her Kazekage however she can, it's a shame she can't help him right now."

"She will, soon enough." Tsunade set aside a pair of scrolls. "Okay, second order of business: your mission to assist Sunagakure was a resounding success, I hear. Kazekage-sama has sent personal recommendations that all tokubetsu jounin receive full promotions, and all chuunin receive promotions to tokubetsu jounin. I will be reviewing his recommendations in the next couple of days and make some decisions. Frankly, I'm amazed that you all did so damned well on this mission. I would promote the four captains if it were possible. This mission came with a caveat that only about a third of you were expected to survive. If you were wondering at the magnitude of your greeting from family and friends, it's because I took it upon myself to caution them of this possibility. I honestly expected there to be some casualties, even though I sent my best healers in the fold, and yet all of you have returned in excellent health. Apart from some minor internal damage on one jounin's part, and some minor broken bones that have been hastily healed and may require some extensive treatment to completely fix, you are all unharmed. That is far, far more than I could have anticipated. You've done me proud. Word of your heroics has reached the Fire Country daimyou's court, and he is so impressed, in fact, that he gave us a sizeable bonus, which I will split amongst you all.

"I'm glad, in retrospect, that I sent you all in the formations that I did; Shikamaru, Naruto, Yamato and Shizune all have impeccable records when it comes to captaining teams and keeping members from harm.

"The captains have all given me their verbal reports, so I will accept that for now. In a few days, however, I expect a written report from each of you. That will be how I justify giving each of you the bonus."

She set aside another stack of scrolls. "Next order of business: the promotion of the Rokudaime Hokage."

After saying that, she folded her hands and rested her chin on it, and remained silent. The room fell completely silent; even Akamaru stopped panting, holding his breath in eager anticipation.

After a few moments, Tsunade smiled and picked up a sheaf of paper. "I won't lie to you guys; I never wanted to be the Godaime Hokage in the first place. I chose to become it when Orochimaru threatened the village, and when it became clear to me that the only other prospect was a lecherous no-good peeping tom with a penchant for running off to do what he calls 'research.'"

"Hey now," Jiraiya said defensively, and Tsunade poked her tongue out at him.

"The past ten, eleven years have been essentially a regency, if you will," she added. "I knew who my successor was going to be from the outset. However, that doesn't make this transition any smoother at this time. So, Naruto, if you were expecting me to hand over the title right away, you've got another think coming. There are still things I want you to do before I'm satisfied enough to resign the post to you. However, before you start thinking I'm backing out, I want you to realize that these are things I've wanted you to do from the outset, but that weren't really available to you while you were still chasing Sasuke."

She took a deep breath. "The position of Hokage is not an easy one, as I'm sure you're aware. And I can't just hand over the title to you now, without some dissent from the Council of Elders. This will take some time, convincing them that you're the best one for the job. In the meantime, I expect you to start helping me with the duties, eventually taking them over. Also, and this is the most important part, I expect you to take on a genin team. Now that you won't be haring off after Sasuke, I can keep you nearby and within the village; I won't have to assign you to as many A-ranks and S-ranks, since I now have more jounin to work with. I have prepared a genin team especially for you, one that I think you will be a very good fit as the sensei of, and I'm willing to graduate them a few months early from the Academy, to get you started. Umino Iruka and the other instructors have assured me that all three students are very capable and ready to become genin, and that they fully expect all three to graduate when the finals come around in spring.

"I do expect you to test them, to not merely accept them out of hand. They will be your responsibility, and I want you to be certain you want these students. If they are not to your liking, you may try again in a few months when the other students graduate. Therefore, in a couple of hours I will send you to meet with them in the Academy. I do believe you will do very well with them and that they will benefit from your tutelage, as two of them are particularly strong with fuuton ninjutsu."

"May I know their names now?" Naruto inquired, and Sakura noted that he was trembling slightly with excitement. He'd wanted to take on a genin team for a couple of years now, ever since becoming a jounin. Unfortunately, the two times he had gotten assigned a team, they had failed his test miserably. Now he had the chance with a team that Tsunade was confident would pass his test.

"Sure. One of them is somewhat underage, but he has gotten extensive training at home from his mother and from family and friends. The other two are from established clans, one of which has a noteworthy _kekkei genkai_ that I'm sure you're familiar with by now.

"They are, in order of age: Kawasaki Shinji, Narita Maiko, and Sarutobi Hikaru."

There was a low whistle from Yumiya, who was only a matter of feet away from Naruto. "Maiko, eh? My older sister Maiya's granddaughter. I hear she's a real brilliant one. You lucked out, Whiskers-kun. She's a real catch. She's got phenomenal healing talent and very strong fuuton sensitivity. She's got our bloodline limit, and she doesn't think it's a burden."

"Not only that," Tsunade said, "but Shinji, Maiko and Hikaru are all familiar with each other and appear to work very well together. Shinji has very strong taijutsu, Maiko has strong ninjutsu and genjutsu; so does Hikaru, whom I'm sure you're familiar with."

"Sarutobi Hikaru is Kurenai-sensei's son, correct?" Naruto said, for clarification. At Tsunade's nod, he elaborated. "All right, but I don't want anyone getting on my case if I fail them. Just because he's the son of Asuma-sensei and Kurenai-sensei, and the grandson of Sandaime-jiichan, doesn't mean he's going to get it easy from me. No one went easy on me; I'm not going to go easy on him. If he can't hack it against my tests, then I don't want him."

Tsunade grinned. "That's the response I was hoping for. But I think you'll be pleasantly surprised, Naruto. Besides, Shinji and Maiko are pretty talented themselves."

"I look forward to testing them, then."

She shuffled some papers together on her desk and set them aside again. "Okay, moving on. Next order of business: Tenten, it is my understanding that you lost your entire weapons scroll in Sunagakure -- that it was damaged irreparably. And due to the speed with which I dispatched you, you didn't have your backup with you."

"That is correct, Hokage-sama."

"Well, Sanami has offered to write you a new, improved scroll, as long as you provide the weapons to seal."

"Really?"

"Yes. And the Kazekage is offering to reimburse you for the total value of weapons lost. You just need to fill out this form, and we will have you compensated immediately," the Hokage handed over the form to the ANBU. "You'll have about a week to gather all the weapons you want to seal into the new scroll; Sanami is too weak to do anything right now, but she will be able to write you the new scroll after a week or so, I figure."

"Hot damn!" Tenten grinned. "I'll be the envy of the entire ANBU squad now. Sanami-dono's scrolls are rumored to be the best in the five countries."

Tsunade nodded distractedly. "The last order of business is specific to the two jounin healers I sent. The rest of you are dismissed. You are excused from any missions -- barring any grave emergencies -- for the next three days, as a reward for your hard work in Sunagakure. Just don't forget to write up your written reports, all of you."

Sakura, who was still not quite used to being a tokubetsu jounin, presumed in her tired mental fog that that dismissal applied to her, and turned to leave with the rest; Lee gripped her forearm. "Hokage-sama wanted you to give a verbal report, Sakura. She was talking about you. I want to get home as much as you do, but we are not done here."

Shizune grinned tiredly at Sakura. "Nice try, though."

"C'mon, Geji-mayu, let's get out of the room and let them talk about their gory stuff in peace," Naruto clapped Lee on the shoulder, sending the older jounin staggering a bit.

"Hey, careful with him!" Sakura snapped peevishly. "Don't give me any more reason to _kick your ass_, Naruto!"

Tsunade motioned for them to go ahead and get out of the room; Naruto closed the door behind them as he and Lee stepped out into the round hallway. Naruto then leaned against the wall, folded his arms comfortably, and waited. "Can't believe Obaachan has handpicked a genin team for me! That doesn't usually happen."

"No, it does not. But it sounds like there are extenuating circumstances," Lee settled himself into a slow pace, determined to keep himself in motion so as not to completely crash.

"Do you know anything about those other two genin? Shinji and Maiko?"

"No. Though I imagine Yumiya-san can tell you more about Narita Maiko."

"Well, Obaachan said Shinji has good taijutsu, so I thought maybe you or Gai-sensei might be familiar with him."

"I doubt it," Lee said. "Gai-sensei does not train genin level anymore. He usually only works with tokubetsu jounin or higher, in specialized one-on-one."

"Ah. Well, damn." Naruto grinned sheepishly. "My, uh, taijutsu could use some help, I suppose. Maybe when you're back up to full speed, when I have time, you can give me some sparring rounds? I think I'd rather spar with you than Gai-sensei."

"That reminds me," Lee snapped his fingers in recall. Then, as he paused beside Naruto, he balled up a fist, and smashed it into Naruto's cheek.

"Wha' th' _fuck_!" Naruto yelped in surprise, uttering an explicative he didn't use except when really surprised or really angry; he cradled his sore jaw in both hands. He could practically feel the bruise form (whether or not it was visible yet, he wasn't sure). "What the hell was that for?"

"That," Lee said forcefully, "is for taking liberties with _my wife_, without permission." Naruto's eyes widened when Lee used the most aggressive pronoun to refer to himself and his relative possession of Sakura. "Now she does not have to 'pound you concave.' I still owe you a punch in the face for failing to stop Sasuke-kun even though you have the strongest fuuton chakra manipulation of any one on that mission. But that punch will have to wait. I was good for one good punch, and that was it." Through the course of the monologue, Lee reverted to his usual pronouns by the end.

"She told you, eh?" Naruto grinned sheepishly again, wincing at the pain in his jaw. "Eh heh. Er, sorry about that, I just... I wanted her to know how I felt, but I didn't want her to think that I'm trying to get between you both."

"You picked a lousy way to do it," Lee grumped, resuming his slow circles in the hall. "She was very confused, and I could tell she did not want to tell me. I think she was afraid I would blame her."

"Trust me, Geji-mayu, it won't happen again. It was just a one-time thing. And I do wish you'd stop pacing. You make me nervous watching you."

"If I stop, I may not get started again, and I would rather 'stop' at home."

"You need chakra?"

"No, I need sleep."

"Correction: you need to be examined, and then you need sleep," Tsunade said as she opened the door, startling them both. Naruto blinked owlishly, not realizing that much time had passed.

"What on earth happened?" Shizune's eyes widened as she looked at Naruto. "That's quite a spectacular bruise you've got growing there!"

Naruto pointed at Lee; "He socked me out of nowhere!"

Sakura raised a fist; "Would you rather _I_ did it, Naruto? I still owe you!"

"No, I took care of yours," Lee said. "You are liable to hurt him."

Tsunade put a hand on his shoulder; "Come on, let's get the examination over with. You look like you're about ready to pass out here, and I'd rather you didn't do it in front of my office. Naruto, I'll take you to meet your new genin team afterwards, all right?"

"Right. I'll be here."

The Hokage ushered Lee and Sakura back into her office while Shizune took a stack of papers to the quartermaster on her way to her home apartment.

"Now, just hold still," she said as she placed him near the window, optimizing the light from the window. "Actually, first, take off that vest." He did as told without question, handing his jounin vest to Sakura. Then Tsunade placed both hands on his shoulders and moved them methodically down his torso, criss-crossing across his abdomen and injecting chakra as she did.

"There's the problem," she said as her hand paused just below his heart. "There's a tiny chakra leak in the solar plexus. One of these channels is damaged, and so is the blood vessel it's connected to. You've got some minor internal bleeding. It's pretty deep in there, behind several organs, I wouldn't have known it was damaged if I hadn't injected some chakra into your bloodstream near that gods-be-damned Fifth Gate of yours. Brace yourself, this might hurt a bit." She pressed her hand flat against his abdomen, just below the ribcage, and activated her shousen no jutsu, forcing it into him in a sharp stream. Lee flinched but didn't make a sound.

After several minutes, the Hokage pulled her hand away. "Well, that should do it. Sakura can keep an eye on it, but I imagine it'll be fine. It should heal itself now. The chakra leak appears to be fixed. You ruptured a chakra channel at the same time as you ruptured that artery. You're just lucky that wasn't an essential artery, or you'd be in really bad shape by now."

Lee stifled a yawn as Sakura helped him back into his vest. His eyes drooped tiredly.

Tsunade smiled at them. "Take him home, Sakura. He's about to go down. I figure a good twelve hours of sleep and he'll be well on the way to recovering. But Lee, don't open those Gates like that again."

"I will try not to, Hokage-sama," Lee murmured as he and Sakura headed toward the door.

"Naruto! Front and center!" Tsunade then barked sharply, her demeanor changing as she addressed her successor. Naruto presented himself with alacrity, garnering a chuckle from Sakura as they exited the office.

* * *

Afterwards, Sakura would recall that as being the longest walk home from the administrative building that she had ever done. Lee had tottered on the very brink of complete collapse. She'd resorted to keeping him talking, to keep him awake while they walked home. 

Once they got in the door of their home, she guided him into the bedroom and helped him to lay down on the bed; amazingly, he remained conscious long enough for her to help him change out of his uniform into some simple cotton loungewear.

Before he slipped off into unconsciousness, she gave him a quickly prepared analgesic and had him lay on his stomach so she could massage his back and shoulders. He fell asleep as she worked her chakra into his tired muscles. She just smiled to herself and continued the massage in silence, basking in the environment of their home, which she hadn't realized she'd missed so much until she'd gotten back.

Afterwards, she took a long, hot shower, then went to scavenge something to eat from the kitchen. Thankfully, someone (most likely her mother) had been over regularly, and had thrown away the spoiled and outdated foods, and had kept the pantry stocked in their absence. She decided on some raw vegetables to eat and a glass of water, not being in the mood to fix anything.

After taking the edge off her hunger, her fatigue finally caught up with her. _I'm not going to be able to get over to see Mom and Dad today. I'm too damned tired; I feel like I could sleep for a week. I hope they can forgive us for it._

She took herself into the bedroom, noting to herself that she somewhat wished Lee had been awake enough to bathe or shower before laying down; he was coated in several days' trail-dust and old sweat. But he'd been on the verge of collapse coming home; a bath or shower would've probably done him in, and she couldn't really lift him in such tight quarters.

She changed into a nightgown and crawled into the bedding, pulling the covers up around Lee as she did so.

The last thought that came to her mind before she drifted off was of the dull ache deep in her abdomen, the harbinger of a monthly cycle. _Well, I guess that means I'm not pregnant._

Then slumber wrapped its arms around her consciousness and she tumbled into its warm, dark embrace.

* * *

**Coming soon: "Part Nine: Hokage's Legacy (working chapter title only)" wherein Naruto tests out his potential genin team. Should be a short chapter, but I can't guarantee it, with how long things have been running lately.**

* * *

**END NOTES: Terminology, for those who are a bit rusty:  
**"**Geji-mayu**" is what Naruto calls Rock Lee. It translates as "fuzzy eyebrows" or as the English dub anime calls it, "Bushy Brow" and is Naruto's nickname for Lee. He doesn't mean anything rude by it, and Lee doesn't seem to mind.  
"**Ero-sennin**" is what Naruto calls Jiraiya. It means "perverted hermit" or as the English dub anime calls it, "Pervy Sage" and is Naruto's nickname for Jiraiya. Jiraiya doesn't particularly like the nickname, but he seems to get used to it.  
**Hitai-ate** are the "forehead protectors" (headbands) worn by all shinobi with symbols of their home village. Because they can be worn anywhere, or not worn at all, I have chosen to use the untranslated word rather than the term "forehead protector" or "headband"  
A **kunoichi** is a female ninja. It is often used in the series as a synonym for ninja or shinobi, when talking about a female. Thus it's used here sporadically much as it is in the series.  
A **tokubetsu jounin** (basically "specialized" jounin) is a lower-class jounin. It is the transitionary position between chuunin and jounin. They specialize in something specific. An example from the canon would be Morino Ibiki, the interrogation specialist. 

**Hidden Villages:**  
**Konohagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Leaves" is the principle village of the Fire Country (Hi no Kuni), and is headed by the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade.  
**Sunagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Sand" is the principle village of the Wind Country (Kaze no Kuni), and is headed by the Godaime Kazekage, Gaara.  
**Kirigakure**: "The Hidden Village of Mist" is the principle village of the Water Country (Mizu no Kuni), and is headed by the Mizukage.  
**Iwagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Rocks" is the principle village of the Earth Country (Tsuchi no Kuni), and is headed by the Tsuchikage.  
**Kumogakure**: "The Hidden Village of Clouds" is the principle village of the Lightning Country (Rai no Kuni), and is headed by the Raikage.

**Chakra types:**  
**Fuuton**: wind-based chakra; weaker than katon, stronger than raiton  
**Raiton**: lightning-based chakra; weaker than fuuton, stronger than doton  
**Doton**: earth-based chakra; weaker than raiton, stronger than suiton  
**Suiton**: water-based chakra; weaker than doton, stronger than katon  
**Katon**: fire-based chakra; weaker than suiton, stronger than fuuton

**Canon technique names:**  
**Chidori** means "One Thousand Birds" but is largely left untranslated in the dub, beyond the initial translation (used by Kakashi and Sasuke)  
**Chidori Nagashi** means "One Thousand Birds Current" and is currently a manga-only attack (used by Sasuke)  
**Rasengan** literally means "Spiraling Sphere" but seems to be left largely untranslated in the English dub (used by Jiraiya and Naruto)  
**Rasenshuriken** literally means "Spiraling Shuriken" and is currently a manga-only attack (used by Naruto)  
**Shousen no Jutsu** literally means "Mystical Palm Technique" and is the ninjutsu technique of choice for most medic-nin. (Used by all medical ninja)


	10. Part Nine: Hokage's Legacy

**Author's Note**: As stated in the prologue and first chapter, this is set way out from the start of the series, and is based on about chapter 360 of the manga, no further, since that's where the manga was when I started this project. And with recent developments in the manga, this makes it quite AU, alas. After all, one of the characters in this story has died in the canon. Refer to the Author's Note in the first chapter for more details.

So much for a short chapter. Oh well.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own any part of "Naruto" or its characters. It all belongs to the incomparable Masashi Kishimoto-sensei. I'm just playing in the sandbox of this amazing world.

**Warning**: Coarse language, allusions to adult situations, descriptions of "female problems," the occasional big and awkward word. (Well, _I_ like a warning for that, so I can have a dictionary nearby; your mileage may vary.) You dun been warned.

* * *

_"The flower which blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all." --proverb from "Mulan"_

_"We'll fight, not out of spite, for someone must stand up for what's right, 'cuz where there's a man who has no voice, there ours shall go singing" --Jewel, "Hands"_

* * *

**"The Flower in Adversity"  
Part Nine: Hokage's Legacy**

Sakura awoke to her neck hurting... or at least, aching. _I must have slept on it wrong. Ugh. I hate a crick in the neck._

She rolled over carefully, trying not to jar it, and opened her eyes to see that the room was lit up by the early morning sunlight streaming through the window. "Lee, how do you feel?" She asked into the quiet as she blinked her eyes sleepily.

Silence greeted her. Near-absolute silence. The kind that let you know you were alone in a room. She couldn't even hear his breathing.

For a fraction of a second she panicked; then common sense got the better of her and she rolled over again. Sure enough, Lee's side of the bed was vacant, neatly made up, with a small note pinned to his pillow.

The note indicated that he was at the first training ground, training with Gai-sensei.

"That idiot!" She clenched her fists. "He's convalescing, and he does this to me?! Ugh, Lee, you ass, just be glad I love you as much as I do, or I'd fucking _kill_ you for this!" She crumpled the note and bolted out of bed.

The movement proved to be too rapid for her system to handle, and she tumbled back onto the bed, clutching her midsection in agony. _Ah, damn, why do these cramps have to be so bad right away? I hope this means I won't be getting the dry heaves or vomiting this month._

Sakura had a history of suffering from both dysmenorrhea and menorrhagia, though the former was the more debilitating of the two for her. Sometimes the pain was mild enough that she could ignore it with some effort; other times it left her nearly bedridden, only able to get up to run to the bathroom and throw up. Some months, the heavy blood flow left her weak and almost anemic. Other months she was fine. There was little predicting it. Though usually, the more pain she was in, the less nausea she dealt with.

It was an inherited trait; she could remember growing up and seeing her mother laid low by both problems. Her mother would be bedridden for a couple of days every couple of months with blinding headaches and excruciating cramps, sometimes forcing her to close the bakery down until the spell passed.

Tsunade had warned Sakura not to use her healing ninjutsu on her menstrual problems, at least not right now. The Hokage, who had spent nearly a lifetime researching various medical techniques, said that using chakra to ease the pain or slow the blood-flow in a kunoichi's uterus had a documented side affect of making the kunoichi sterile over time, slowly making conception and pregnancy increasingly difficult. Apparently the chakra used to ease cramps inhibited the ovaries' release of eggs, and using chakra to slow blood-flow interfered with the uterus's ability to maintain and support a fetus. It was apparently the reason why few medical kunoichi had children. The temptation to use one's healing powers on oneself was pretty strong. Tsunade insisted that Sakura would have to endure the pain and the heavy flows if she wanted to safely bear children in the future.

On the other hand, the Hokage had taken pity on Sakura when she saw how bad the young kunoichi had it, and regularly made her infusions of an herbal tea that usually eased the pain of the cramps, and generally seemed to ease her menorrhagia at least a little bit. Herbs didn't harm the delicate organs the way chakra could. Even a medical ninja, whose control over chakra was usually first rate, could easily damage the delicate reproductive organs, which were notoriously fragile because of their lack of contribution to the body's over all functioning.

Sakura went into the bathroom and took care of business as usual, not entirely sure she was relieved or disappointed at the arrival of her menses, thus proving without a doubt that she was not pregnant. On the one hand, she wasn't looking forward to being pregnant (her mother had told her many times before just how difficult being pregnant had been for her, and Haruno Tsubaki had been unable to carry to term again after Sakura was born. She'd miscarried twice before she and her husband gave up trying to have another child, a sibling for Sakura.) and was really not looking forward to giving birth. But, on the other hand, Sakura did want to have children, and she knew Lee really wanted kids. Now that they were married, she had hoped that they would be starting a family soon. She had stopped taking contraceptives a couple of months ago, in hopes that by the time the wedding was over with, the contraceptives would be out of her system and her fertility would be back to normal.

She shook her head irritably. _We've only been married for two weeks. It's not like we don't have time. Good grief, Sakura, you're not even 24 yet, you've got all the time in the world!_

Still, it was a little disappointing. She wondered if Lee was already aware of it. She recalled him speculating about her being pregnant a couple of weeks ago, right before the wedding, because in her nervous state at the time, she'd gone on a bit of a sweets-binge, and Mrs. Haruno had joked that Sakura was behaving like she was having the clichéd midnight cravings. She rather hoped he already knew, or guessed, that his speculation was wrong. She didn't really want to _tell_ him.

Sakura shook her head vigorously. _A sure sign I'm hormonal: I'm getting all maudlin again. Ugh._

She scrubbed her face to wake herself up out of her depressed state and finished cleaning up, then dressed in a casual outfit. She wasn't in the mood to be a shinobi today. She was still quite exhausted from the extent of the mission in Suna, combined with the onslaught of her menses, and she wanted to just lounge around the house. The arrival of her menses also meant no sex for a while, not unless she fancied some serious laundry. Which she didn't. Besides, the blood tended to weird Lee out a bit. Still, they could get intimate without engaging in actual intercourse.

After scavenging something to eat out of the fridge, Sakura decided to stop moping around the house and go visit the training fields. She figured Naruto would just be getting his student test under way, and Gai and Lee might be at a stopping point soon. She decided to fix some onigiri to take with her, figuring Lee would probably be pretty hungry. He usually was famished after a day's workout, especially since he hadn't eaten properly for the past couple of days due to his exhaustion.

Half an hour later, she was so frustrated with the rice balls that she was about to throw them out the window, but figured it'd be a waste of food. She packed them into a small wicker basket and gathered up some bottles of water. As she was about to step out, she saw a note taped to the front door. It was written in crabbed chicken-scratch letters, but worded in proper kanji, unlike Lee's note, which as usual had been written in katakana. Lee, for all that he was proper and refined in speech, was still slightly illiterate, and wrote almost exclusively in katakana. Kanji confused him, as a general rule, something that Sakura found very amusing. Even Naruto didn't have this much trouble with writing.

"Don't kill him for this, Sakura," the note said. "I'm aware of his limits, and I'll keep him in control. Trust me on this, I know him pretty well by now. I'll take good care of him, I promise." A tiny sketch of a thumbs-up followed that last line. There was no question who had written it, even without a signature. The note was on light-green stationary with tiny turtles around its border. That, combined with the implied thumbs-up, made it aggravatingly clear.

She'd have to give Gai-sensei a piece of her mind about doing this, sneaking Lee out like this. At least they could have woken her up to tell her about it!

She stepped out of the apartment and locked it. As she faced the street, she took a deep, long breath of the fresh winter air here in Konoha. She loved the smell of the village early in the morning.

"Good morning, Sakura," a voice called from the street, and she looked over to see Kakashi and Iruka heading toward the administrative building. _They must be just getting back from their vigil over the memorial stone_, she thought as she waved at her two former teachers. She found the unlikely friendship between jounin and chuunin, forged over the foundation stone of the cenotaph and their personal losses engraved thereupon, to be very amusing. Kakashi and Iruka really had nothing in common, except that they both had loved ones whose names were inscribed on the stone. As far as she knew, they didn't interact much, except when they would meet beside the stone in the mornings. Nevertheless, they seemed to enjoy each other's company, and to sort of look forward to their daily rituals. Sakura recalled that Iruka had been a little lonely when Kakashi was away in Sunagakure for six months.

"Let me guess where you're off to," Kakashi said lazily. "Training fields one or three, or perhaps both?"

She blushed. "Well I don't have any reason to go to any other training field, do I?"

"Not to my knowledge, not unless you wanted to go make fun of a couple of Akimichis training over on field five. But I'll warn you, Chouza's been in a bad mood lately," Iruka grinned. "I think his teammates have been avoiding him lately."

Sakura thanked them for the information and the warning, and headed on her way. The two older ninja watched her leave before resuming their walk.

"I wonder how long it'll take for Naruto to evaluate that new team?" Kakashi said with a yawn as he and Iruka continued on their way. "I'd make a wager on Naruto failing them out of hand, but I'm not sure I trust Yumiya."

"They're good kids. I suspect they'll surprise him. You didn't recognize Shinji's name?"

"Eh? Kawasaki? Ehn, now that you mention it, I think I did test a Kawasaki. What was his name? Ichirou? Dumber than a rock, that one. Naruto's got his dumb moments, but he can also be pretty brilliant. He's a lot like his mom, now that I think of it. His dad was very clever and calculating, hardly ever had any dumb moments."

"Well, Shinji's not dumb, not in the least. He was a real handful. I won't miss him in my classroom, I'll say that much!"

"Did you recommend him to Godaime-sama?"

"I might've... Like I'd tell you, Kakashi-san!"

"Oh, you're evil!"

* * *

The third training field was closer to Sakura and Lee's residence, so she stopped by there first. She fully expected to see Naruto alone, with the kids in hiding, trying the same foolish tactics she and her team had tried against Kakashi-sensei. 

Instead, she found Naruto sitting at the base of the cenotaph, with his three students sitting around him in a semi-circle. All four of them were indulging in food.

_Don't tell me he's testing them by seeing if they'll eat his cooking! _Naruto was a lousy cook; she had had to suffer his cooking before on missions. Still, that didn't make for a good ninja test!

"Sakura-chan! Good morning!" Naruto waved to her. "If you're looking for Geji-mayu, he's over on Field One."

"I was going to see how you were coming in your testing of genin. I'm a little disappointed in your choice of tests, Naruto." She put her hands on her hips. "Cruel and unusual punishment, you know!"

"What do you mean? I didn't tie anyone to a stump. Kinda couldn't."

"Inflicting your cooking on children, Naruto, that's just low."

"What? Oh, no, these are take-out from Ichiraku."

Sakura blinked at them, trying to follow the logic here. Naruto grinned and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "These kids, ah, already passed the bell test. Shinji snatched them from me and gave them to his teammates. I couldn't very well tie anyone to a stump, since all three had their hands on a bell at one point."

"Really?"

"Yeah. So I thought I'd let them eat, and then we'll get started training. I want to see just what all they can each do. I've seen their teamwork, and it's pretty damn good for their level. A lot better than we were when Kakashi-sensei was testing us. Now I wanna see what they can do individually."

"I'm gonna show you, Naruto-sensei, that I'm no lightweight! Stealing those bells was just a warm-up!" The ginger-haired boy grinned as he speared a slice of egg from his teammate's ramen with his chopsticks. The black-haired girl's eyes bulged and she screeched in outrage.

"Gimme that back!"

"Too slow, busu!" Shinji laughed as he ate the slice of egg.

Maiko's face contorted in rage and she sputtered.

Sarutobi Hikaru sighed and handed over the slice of egg from his own bowl. "Here, Maiko-chan. You can have mine. I'm not big on eggs anyway. Just don't let Shinji-kun get this one."

"I'll get you back for that one, Shinji!" Maiko growled. "Just you wait 'til I go all genjutsu-y on your butt, you jerk!"

"Shouldn't you be thanking Hikaru first, for giving you his?" Shinji laughed. "Mm-_busss_!" He hissed the word at her with glee.

"Hekoki!" Maiko shrilled, sounding starkly like her great-aunt there for a moment. While Yumiya was more likely to call someone a "fucker" than a "farter," she wasn't above using such words. And her manner of speaking was exactly like Yumiya's. Those Naritas were definitely a saucy, unrefined bunch at times!

"I'll leave you four to your training," Sakura said with a smile. This team was going to be quite a handful, she could tell right away. Shinji reminded her quite starkly of Naruto -- high energy, full of confidence and big words, and always smiling. Maiko looked like she was going to have Yumiya's guts and forwardness, and perhaps even Yumiya's brash, crude personality. Hikaru was known for his focus and drive and he could be bloody _stubborn _as hell! Sakura had listened to Kurenai complaining about him over the past eight years, how difficult the kid could be when he set his mind to something that she didn't like. In some ways, he was kind of like Sasuke way back in the beginning, before everything went to shit in the Chuunin Exams. "Congratulations, Naruto, on getting a team that meets your requirements."

"Thanks, Sakura-chan. Give my regards to Geji-mayu!"

"Will do."

Sakura felt lighter on her feet. _Shishou arranged that team deliberately, so that Naruto would end up with a team that will work well with him, but will keep him on his toes. She must be tired of being Hokage and wants to advance Naruto soon. That makes me so happy, to know he's going to realize his dream, and to know that Tsunade-sama is doing everything in her power to help him get there._

As she was leaving the field, she noticed a daffodil blooming merrily nearby the entrance. _It's too early for daffodils. They still have another month or two before they start blooming._

Sakura glanced back at the group. _Well, Maiko _is _from the Narita clan, and Yumiya-san was talking about her pretty highly. I suppose that the Naritas can make a flower bloom out of season. Maybe Maiko was bored waiting for Naruto and made this flower grow here as a way of keeping herself entertained._

She stooped down and plucked one of the blooms. _I'm sure she just chose this at random; she can't have known its significance to me. But it's sweet all the same. _She grinned to herself, her heart buoyed, as she tucked the flower into her basket.

Training Field Two was closed for maintenance during the winter, due to the amount of water in it, and the amount of winter flooding it got. Sakura skirted the field and came to the entrance gate for the first field, the largest and most often used training field due to its ideal location.

She could hear the sounds of sparring, and grinned. Gai-sensei was not quiet about anything, least of all training. He was the kind of person who believed that the louder you proclaimed something, the better it was.

Sure enough, there were two green flashes circling the main part of the field. Sakura spied another person there off to one side, near the gate, sunning on a large flat rock, turned just enough to keep an eye on the action without being the least bit involved. Just a spectator, nothing more.

"Good morning, Yumiya-san."

"Yo," the kunoichi raised a hand in greeting, sitting up as Sakura approached. "Come to watch the fun?"

"Yeah. I thought it'd be good to get out of the house."

"Yes, because you've been so cooped up for so long," the older woman snickered. "It's not like you were out on a mission to Suna or anything."

"Well, it gets boring around the house by myself," Sakura said as she stuck her tongue out. "Or even with Lee there, unless we're... well, you know. He can be pretty boring company when he's not in the mood for something lively."

"Whatever. Try living with Gai. I suppose it wouldn't be so bad if I were in love with him and could see past his faults. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate what he's done for me, and I am grateful that he took me in when I ran into financial trouble. But he's an annoying housemate, dammit! Typical long-time bachelor. Spartan living quarters and bizarre habits. He always gets up so damned early, and he fucking _sings _in the shower -- badly! The man cannot carry a tune in a bucket! Oh, and he freaks out if I walk into the bathroom when he's in the shower. The bloody shower curtain is transparent! When I walk in, he screams like a girl and covers up. You know, like he thinks I've never seen male 'equipment' before, or something. Geez, I may be a lesbian, but I do have brothers. I've seen everything there is to see on the male body. I don't find it the least bit attractive, either. Maybe that's his problem."

"I..." Sakura gulped. "Yumiya-san, I really didn't need to hear that."

"Too bad!" The older kunoichi laughed. "You heard it. Want me to go into greater detail? I can."

"No thank you!" Sakura waved her hands in front of her. "Seriously! I'd rather not be mentally scarred for life!"

Yumiya grinned and reclined on the rock again. "So, have you seen Whiskers-kun?"

"Yeah, I did. I just came from there."

"How's his team doing?"

"They passed already. He's going to start training them right away. He sounded impressed with them."

"Really? Oh, good for them! I'm glad. I hear Maiko-chan is a very talented little squirt, but I don't know personally; I'm not allowed near her family." The kunoichi's face darkened. "Ever since Mum died, I've been shut out from the family, and I hate it. Maiya won't talk to me. I've given up calling her Nee-san for that reason."

Sakura frowned slightly; "You've said before that you call yourself the Black Sheep of the Naritas..."

Yumiya snorted. "_I_ don't call myself that. The other Naritas call me that. I'm a failure to them. And I suppose they have a point. There's a fucking _reason_ why I'm never asked to take on a genin team again." The abrupt way she ended the statement left unsaid that she didn't want to talk about it.

Sakura chewed her lip and decided not to press Yumiya. Instead, she watched as the two taijutsu masters went around and around. Lee was more like Tenten in that he used weapons more than Gai-sensei. He was using them sparingly, but Sakura did notice that he had a kunai in his left hand, ready to throw the moment Gai-sensei left an opening. She watched them race counter-clockwise around the pole at the center of the field, trade blows and then change direction and run clockwise. It was like a complicated dance, really.

"You're really not going to ask?" Yumiya asked finally. "About what I was talking about?"

"Not if you don't want to talk about it."

"I don't, but I suppose I can... look, the reason I'm a failure goes all the way back to when I was a young jounin. I was only a jounin for like a year before Sandaime-sama assigned me to test a team, and I passed them. I thought they were a great team. I figured I was going to go far with them, get them to the chuunin exams and maybe even get them to graduate to chuunin in the first year. One of them was related to the Hyuuga clan -- had a great-grandparent who was from one of the branch families, or something. Kid didn't have the Byakugan or anything, the blood had been too diluted for it, though he had light-colored eyes. He had excellent taijutsu. Sometimes when I see that kid Neji sparring with Gai, it makes my heart ache, because I can see how the Hyuugas' style influenced Akira's style.

"I was stupid and careless, and they got on my nerves during a C-rank. I got mad at them and tried to teach them a lesson. In the end, the only one who learned a lesson was me. We got caught in the crossfire of a local flare-up."

Sakura swallowed, her stomach twisting in sympathy. She remembered her first C-rank, that had quickly become an A-rank or higher.

"In other words," Yumiya stuck a blade of grass between her teeth, deceptively calm and nonchalant as she spoke, "my genin team died. Stupidly. Because I was immature and didn't protect them until it was too late. I couldn't save them because I didn't have enough skill as a medic-nin. Because of me, three children died. Because of me, three families were suddenly childless. I returned to Konoha in shame. Sandaime-sama forgave me, but no one else did."

There was a long moment of silence. "I miss that old bastard. He was the kindest man you ever knew, Sandaime-sama was. Not even Yondaime-sama was as kind and caring as Sandaime. Sandaime-sama truly loved everyone in the village, regardless of who they were. A Hokage doesn't have to love everyone in the village, he only has to love the village enough to live and die for it as a whole. Sandaime-sama hated sending people to their deaths, so he did his best to protect and train them, to make sure they could handle anything they were put to. If they had trouble with something, he'd get them the help they needed, or he'd help them himself. People didn't call him The Professor for nothing. Godaime-sama is a brilliant woman, and she's a very, very good Hokage, but she doesn't quite have Sandaime's flair for teaching."

Her voice hinted at a silent, repressed sob. "Sandaime-sama gave me another chance, which is more than anyone else has ever done. He let me join ANBU, to try and escape my catastrophic failure. I was ready to quit altogether; I was devastated by how badly I'd failed as a jounin sensei. I mean, when a jounin loses his or her genin team like that, no one's going to trust them with genin again. Hokage-sama convinced me to not quit, said that if I quit, it proved I was never worthy of being a shinobi in the first place. He always said 'Once a shinobi, always a shinobi,' and that quitting when the going gets hard proves you're no shinobi. He always said that the only acceptable reason for a shinobi quitting or retiring was physical inability to continue -- injury, illness or old age. Hokage-sama said I wasn't done by a long road, that I should spend some time trying to redeem myself, to prove that that had only been accident. My family, on the other hand, viewed my failure as a complete disgrace. They basically disinherited me. Mum would talk to me, but I was no longer her daughter, I was just an acquaintance."

Sakura felt her stomach lurch at the thought of her parents disinheriting her, treating her like a stranger, over something like that. _What the hell is it with these established clans? They really drag their own through the muck!_

"After Mum died, all contact with the family ceased. I've been cut out completely. The last thing I recall Maiya saying to me was that I should be grateful I was allowed to keep my surname; that if it were up to her, I'd be stripped of that too." She grunted. "That's been a good ten or fifteen years now. And I haven't spoken to my brothers in probably fifteen years."

It felt like something was falling into place in Sakura's brain. This explained why Yumiya always spoke so highly of the Sandaime Hokage, why she wouldn't tolerate the smallest slight against him. Granted, Yumiya didn't talk a _lot_ about Sandaime-sama, but when she did, it was always with such reverence. And now Sakura could see why: the Third Hokage had been her savior; he had saved her career and had given her a chance to redeem herself, at a time when everyone else in the village had likely viewed her as a failure and a dangerous fool, and had turned their backs on her. This was likely not too terribly long after the Kyuubi attack, which meant that the village was still shorthanded for ninjas at the time. Sakura recalled that it wasn't until a couple of years before she graduated to become a genin that Konohagakure was back up to speed with a full contingent of ninjas of all ranks... and then the invasion happened and everything was thrown back into chaos.

_Wait, fifteen years?_ She caught on to that last comment. "Yumiya-san... I don't normally ask a question like this, and I hope you don't mind, but... how old _are _you?" It had only just occurred to Sakura that she had never known that.

Yumiya grinned. "First, how about you telling me something: how old do you think I am?"

"I figured you were maybe Iruka-sensei's age or so. Early thirties."

Yumiya laughed so hard she choked on the blade of grass.

"I'm flattered, kiddo, but I'm definitely older than that. I'm 42."

"Whoa." Sakura blinked. "I had no idea."

"I've been a jounin for twenty years now. I was in ANBU for a little over ten years. Then the incident with the castle happened, and I ended up getting kicked out of _that_ too. So I've been working mostly solo for the past eight years or so. I run a lot of messages, especially to Kusagakure. They know me pretty well there, so I usually don't have trouble getting right to their village head to deliver a message."

Sakura ran her fingers through her hair, at a complete loss for what to say.

"The day that my genin team died is one of the three worst days of my life. The other two would be the castle fiasco, and the day I came home to find out that Hokage-sama had died fighting Orochimaru. I had been assigned to the daimyou's court, so I knew about the invasion when it happened, but I had no idea that Orochimaru was behind it, or that he and Sarutobi-sama did battle. Yukiko and I were guarding the daimyou's family at the time." Yumiya sat up and folded her long legs into a quasi-Lotus position. "So by the time we got done with that duty, it was almost dark, and we came home to find out that Sandaime-sama was dead."

Gai and Lee shifted gears and started trading blows more frequently, instead of dodging each other's strikes. The loud flesh-to-flesh _smack!_ of fist against palm sounded over and over as they moved into a close-combat fist-fight routine. Gai continued to coach Lee through it, praising him when he blocked, chiding him when his punches failed to land, and reminding him -- in the midst of the mock-fight -- of various alternatives he could have used.

"Still," Yumiya said, "the worst day of my life is without a doubt the day Yukiko died." She said it so nonchalantly that Sakura looked over at her in surprise. The older kunoichi chewed almost absently on the blade of grass as her eyes lost focus slightly.

"Yukiko was the love of my life, I'll say that right now. Since losing her, I haven't been able to stir those same feelings again. It's like I had my chance and blew it. We were perfect partners for so many reasons. She could compensate for my shortcomings, and I had the strength to fight for both of us if necessary. We were together for about seven years or so. She really was like an angel of redemption for me. She provided an alternative that enabled me to make full use of this bloodline limit of mine, since I haven't been honored with its secret."

Sakura unwrapped one of the onigiri and offered it to Yumiya, who shook her head in a silent "thanks but no thanks."

The black-haired ninja propped her elbows on her knees (thus sort of ruining the whole Lotus position) and leaned her chin on her hands. "I dunno why I'm bothering to tell you this, Sakura. I guess that the floodgates are open, so it's coming out. There is a lesson in here for you, though, I think. I wasn't ready to say as much to you the other day when I gave you a stupid lecture about the price of love. And by the way, I'm sorry for being so high-and-mighty about it; it's not like I've been very perfect in love either. I just couldn't bear to watch you be so ignorant and potentially ruin this great partnership you've got with Lee.

"When I speak of a great love, I don't mean the passionate, fiery, all-consuming kind. I'm talking about the person who completes you. The person who is your perfect partner in nearly every way. That was Yukiko for me. I've had other love affairs that were hotter, more torrid, but none left so much impact on me as her. And maybe I'm just goddamned vain and loved her chiefly because she broke the shackles that bound my _kekkei genkai_. You know how the Hyuuga clan can seal theirs, the Byakugan, with a brand on the forehead? Well, my clan can 'seal' this blood-chakra thing simply by keeping a crucial step in its use completely secret from all but the most elite. There is a technique that enables a Narita to extract chakra from his or her bloodstream and use it in place of the blood itself. It is considerably more potent than normal chakra, because it is distilled. There must be more to it, however, because even extracting chakra from the blood itself doesn't account for just how much more powerful the elite are compared to the rest of us.

"To give you an idea of how it works, consider that greenhouse in Sunagakure. It took me an entire week to fill all the rows with plants in an advanced enough stage that they could be used for medicines if needed. Because I have a finite level of usable blood-chakra -- that would be the green chakra you see me use -- at any one point, I can't get very far on chakra alone. On chakra alone, five plants is my limit. With blood, I was able to manage a single full row. And even then I was dangerously close to anemia. The more blood I use, the less chakra I have to use, because of the chakra built into the cells of my blood. If I had the Narita family secret technique, I could have filled that entire greenhouse in one day, or perhaps even sooner.

"Now, I can cast regular genjutsu just like the next person, but you yourself know how taxing that can be on chakra. However, us Naritas have developed a way of using our blood-chakra to circumvent that, and we can thus cast extremely elaborate genjutsu with much less cost in overall chakra. I still don't know how it works, because they never told me exactly how it works, only showed me how to do it. But just like with the plant growing thing, we have to use our blood, and the more elaborate or prolongued the genjutsu, the more blood it takes. The body can replenish lost blood, but it takes time. Therefore, there's a limit to how much we can do, without that secret technique.

"Yukiko had a unique ability that enabled me to circumvent that. It might've been a _kekkei genkai_ -- I don't know, she would never tell me that, but it's an ability I've never seen, before or since. She was able to increase the amount of plasma in the body with a minimal amount of chakra by converting other body fluids into it. And she was able to divide blood-cells in half and therefore increase their total count by two hundred percent. In other words, she could easily double the amount of blood I had inside me at any one point, and do so in a very, very short period of time. So I could literally use four litres of blood on something, and not feel any effects because she'd be replenishing it as fast as I shed it. There was of course a limit to how much she could do. After dividing the cells once, she had to wait about fifteen minutes for the system to stabilize before she could divide again, and she could only divide the cells a total of five times in a given day before it made the cells too weak, so she had to time things properly. But think about it. Dividing the cells in half five times means that she could increase my productivity by three thousand two hundred percent over my normal output."

"But wouldn't you run out of body fluids before then?" Sakura interrupted, her head almost spinning with this information.

"Probably, except that I always carried a couple of litres of water with me at all times, and she kept a whole slew of hypodermic syringes full of fluids she could inject subcutaneously in emergency situations and extract that way. It didn't matter what kind of fluid it was, so long as it was actually inside the body at the time, and wasn't a harmful substance like a poison."

Yumiya stretched her limbs and returned to a recumbant position, briefly reminding Sakura of Shikamaru and his penchant for cloudwatching.

"You probably don't know anything about that whole castle incident, and there are details I can't reveal, but suffice to say, Yukiko and I were assigned by Godaime-sama on a difficult S-rank. We were to assassinate one of the daimyou's courtiers, a man who lived in a huge, expensive fortress-like mansion. I think he got wind of our orders, or else he was hideously paranoid, because he had a huge guard posted the night we were supposed to do it. Yukiko wanted to back off and regroup, to wait for some backup to arrive. I didn't want to wait. We got into a big argument over it, and she finally told me that she wasn't going to try to stop me, but she also wasn't going to help me or save my ass either.

"I got really full of myself and thought I'd be clever. I thought I'd show her, and decided to try and cast a genjutsu on the entire castle. The thing is, you can't _do _that. You can't catch people in genjutsu that you can't see. And chakra doesn't pass through walls very well. What I was attempting would likely have been impossible even with Whiskers-kun's extensive chakra and Yukiko's blood-division combining with my blood-chakra. But I was too arrogant to admit that downfall, so I kept trying, and I ended up exhausting myself. I got ambushed by a dozen bloodthirsty samurai, and overwhelmed. I expected to die, and at some point I might have lost consciousness, though I think it's more of a case of blackout than passing out. I simply don't remember what happened; it's a hole in my memory. All I know is that when I became aware of my surroundings again, all the samurai around me were dead. Yukiko was laying on top of me... and she was dead too." Here Yumiya paused, her voice having wavered almost to the point of breaking on that last sentence. "I don't know what exactly killed her. I don't remember where she was wounded. The only thing I know is, I was an idiot and got myself into mortal danger, and the one person who meant more to me than anything -- than even my own life -- sacrificed herself to save me, after telling me she wasn't going to do anything to help me.

"The person for whom I practically lived, the person who meant the most to me, who completed me, died protecting me because I was too foolish to recognize my own limits. And I never got the chance to say goodbye to her -- she was already dead by the time I came around." Yumiya draped an arm across her eyes; Sakura had a feeling she did it to hide her tears, because she could hear the silent weeping in her voice.

"Needless to say, I failed that mission miserably, and in the end Godaime-sama had to send Kurenai, Asuma and Kakashi-sempai in to do it. I was ready to quit completely, but again Godaime-sama quoted the same words Sandaime-sama used, about how quitting proved I was never a shinobi in the first place, and she shamed me into staying. But by that point, I was starting to come apart at the seams. In short order, I was kicked out of ANBU and started taking on solo missions. The damage was done, though. A couple of years ago I started to self-destruct. My vices got the better of me; I was on a downward spiral to complete and utter failure. That's when Gai stepped in."

Just then, a little reddish songbird with a pink ribbon around its chest dropped out of the sky and landed with a flourish on the rock next to Sakura. It took her a moment to recognize this bird, whose code-name was Winter Blossom, as the bird used by Tsunade to summon Sakura to the administrative building. The bird was followed by a green-beribboned blackbird, whose code-name was Little Green Leaf. This was the bird used by Tsunade to summon Lee.

"Segue," Yumiya chuckled. "Well, anyway, that's the story. Take of it what you will." She stood up fluidly and began making hand-seals. Then, after culminating on her potent "tiger" seal, she cocked back her right fist and held it, tracking the two sparring jounin with her eyes. When they reached a certain point, she drove her fist forward; "**Kaze no Myaku no jutsu**!"

From her extended fist came a reverberating throb of whirling wind chakra. When it would have collided with the two jounin, they broke apart and landed at opposite ends of the training area.

"Yumiya, what the hell?" Gai-sensei scowled.

"Sorry to break up the party, boys," Yumiya grinned. "But your little student has a summons from Hokage-sama. And besides, you promised to help me with Tora Tatsumaki. I've been waiting patiently since sun-up."

"I suppose you have a point," Gai said grudgingly. His eyes traveled a bit. "Oh, good morning, Sakura."

"Good morning, Gai-sensei," she said pleasantly, and got a wicked kick of glee at the look of consternation that passed over his face. Gai-sensei was a cheerful, energetic man who wore his heart on his sleeve and dared a person to harm it, but even he had his limits, and Sakura commanded some healthy respect from him, after she'd nearly rearranged his face three years ago with a chakra-punch when he pissed her off. Gai was proud, but not foolishly so. He knew that someone like Sakura -- who inherited this strength and power from Tsunade, but inherited the temper rather directly from her own mother, though Tsunade had the same push-button temper -- was not someone to be trifled with when pushed to her limits of tolerance.

She was briefly reminded of how Sai kept insisting that she had the perfect fake smile, the kind of smile that could convey ill-intent. She rather didn't think that was a compliment, but there were times when she could smile mirthlessly at someone and even someone as strong and proud as Gai-sensei would cow in consternation, if not outright fear. (Naruto, on the other hand, tended to back up in pure fear when she got that bad. He was used to her abuses, and didn't much enjoy them, so he tended to show submission much quicker.) The only people she was unable to intimidate were Tsunade (who had the same temper and power, and was of higher rank), Shizune (who was used to Tsunade), Gaara (who still didn't pick up on subtleties; he'd gotten on her nerves about halfway through her time in Suna this past couple of weeks, and she'd tried that move on him. He'd just stared back at her expressionlessly, silently inviting her to actually _say_ something. The whole thing had ended when Lee broke the tension being the loveable idiot he was by bumbling into something and knocking a vase over.) and weirdly enough, Yumiya wasn't particularly intimidated by Sakura's worst expressions. Now Sakura knew why -- because frankly, Yumiya had been through much worse, plus the older kunoichi was reputed as being a fast dodger, which was how she sparred with Gai. When she could, she loved to spar with Tsunade, who did in fact enjoy the sparring, because it helped keep her in shape. So Yumiya was skilled at dodging chakra-punches, and she'd endured much worse emotionally. She was literally fearless at times.

"Hey," Yumiya said cantankerously. "Stop with the plains-wolf staredown, eh? You have a summons, dumbshit, get going." She swatted Sakura.

Lee went over to a nearby sun-warmed pond and splashed some water on his face, to cool down from the vigorous exercise. It was unseasonably warm for a mid January day, at least ten degrees outside. When he had scrubbed some of the sweat off, he dried off and moved over to stand next to Sakura. She glanced at him briefly, illuminated by the morning sun, and her heart fluttered happily (in such a way that almost made her feel stupidly sentimental). He really had matured nicely. He wasn't necessarily the most beautiful person in the village, but he was handsome in his own right, and she adored him. Even Ino, who had a reputation for being extremely picky when it came to a man's appearance, had commented that Lee had grown up into something rather easy on the eyes.

Yumiya and Gai were squaring off around the center of the make-shift practice ring. Gai didn't even look winded.

"Have you guys really been sparring since sunrise?" Sakura asked incredulously.

"Not nonstop," Lee said with a gusty sigh. "I am not up to his level; I cannot hold my speed as long as he can. But I did graze him with a kunai, which I have not done in a very long time!" He grinned, proud of his achievement. "Very slowly, I am getting my full strength back."

Little Green Leaf chirped and flapped his wings impatiently. Winter Blossom hopped around on the rock and warbled at Sakura, before lashing out at Little Green Leaf. The two birds did _not_ get along at all, a fact that everyone found amusing, considering that the people the birds summoned had become so intimate. Usually, when Tsunade expected to find the two of them together, she'd send one of the birds -- usually Winter Blossom -- with a ribbon attached indicating the other person as well. Sakura's ribbon was red-tipped pink; Lee's was black-edged green. The fact that both birds had been dispatched meant that apparently Tsunade was aware that Lee was training, and that she assumed Sakura to still be at home.

Sakura stood up, picking up her basket. "I made you some onigiri. You know how I am with them, so don't expect much, but I thought you might be hungry."

Lee was not a picky eater in the least, and accepted the proffered food eagerly, with hastily murmured thanks. He tucked right in, which made her grin.

"You are hungry, aren't you?"

"Of course I am," he said between bites. "It has been a while since breakfast, after all." He didn't have to remind her about his high metabolism, which meant he burned through calories and nutrients at an insane rate. It was said that Lee and Gai-sensei could hold their own against the Akimichis when it came to eating, simply because of the high metabolism their bodies maintained. This had never been tried actively, but considering how often she had to go grocery shopping, Sakura had a feeling it wasn't too far from the truth.

Since Tsunade had only sent the two small birds, with no indication of absolute urgency, neither of the two of them was in a huge hurry, so they took it slow walking toward the center of the village, where the administrative building towered over the nearby residences and shops.

While they walked, they passed through one of the oldest districts in the village, where some of the oldest buildings were, the original buildings built by the Shodaime himself. Yamato-taichou lived in some quarters here, and in his spare time he often accepted commissions for repairs, since he had the same mukon chakra that the Shodaime had had, which had built this village. The oldest quarters showed the most wear and tear from the passage of time. There were four districts like this -- this one was the oldest though, but the other three were pretty old too, and their ages progressed as one got closer to the administrative building, which was the oldest building of its size, but not the oldest building in the village.

Down the main street of town, they passed her parents' bakery shop, and were delayed when Sakura's cousin Ayame, who had been sweeping the steps off, came diving out into the street to hug her. Things got a little crazy when Little Green Leaf started divebombing Ayame and pecking irritably at her, forcing her to back off. He was an exceptionally impatient little bird.

Noboru came out to greet them as well, though Lee reminded Sakura that they were expected by Hokage-sama, so they really could not afford to waste time. Noboru laughed and motioned them to get going. "Just don't forget to stop by later. We haven't seen you two in forever!"

Sakura grinned. "I'm sorry we didn't stop by yesterday. We got home and pretty much passed out, we were so tired."

"I could tell," her father said with a shrug. "A slack-jawed idiot could tell you were both on the point of collapse. Just don't be strangers now! Now go. Hokage-sama isn't one to be trifled with, after all."

"Wait!" A voice hollered from inside the store, as Tsubaki came bustling out, a small paper bag held in her hands. "Here, give this to Hokage-sama. She placed an order first thing this morning, and I just go these done. I was going to send Ayame, but I've got so many orders I can use all the spare hands I can get. Can you do that for me, sweetheart?" She held the bag out to Sakura.

Sakura took the bag, recognizing the aroma emanating from it; "So you've gotten Hokage-sama addicted to your special sourdough rolls, Mom? I told Tsunade-sama that you made the best sourdough rolls in the entire village! When'd she start?"

"Right after you lot left the village, she started frequenting the shop, and proclaimed these rolls to be her favorite. So, I've been trying to keep a small supply ready daily, but she placed an order before I could get one ready this morning. So, here." By that point, Tsubaki had lost even _herself_ in that comment, so she knew no one else was following her logic. "Do me a huge favor and deliver these to her. I added a couple extra as a thank-you for her patience. I ran out of flour this morning, so I had to send your father for more, and he had to go out of the village to get the right kind."

Sakura nodded and tucked the bag into her currently empty basket.

"Sakura," Lee said, "I think that Little Green Leaf is about to do something unsightly if we do not keep going."

Sakura glanced up at the bird, who was circling menacingly. She glared at it, but bid her farewells to her family and she and Lee kept moving toward the giant red dome-shaped building with the kanji for "Fire" emblazoned on it.

They passed by the Yamanaka family's flower shop, where Inoichi was outside watering the flower pots in front of the shop. The Yamanakas were old friends of Sakura's family. Noboru and Inoichi had attended the Academy together, and had each joined genin teams at the same time; Inoichi, unlike Noboru, had succeeded in advancing his career, and was a much respected jounin in the village, though he also helped his wife run the flower shop.

Inoichi smiled and waved merrily to two of them, then continued his work.

Shortly thereafter, they were stopped when a tussling pair of older men tumbled into their path; by their movements, they were clearly both completely and utterly drunk. They were attempting to trade punches, but their movements were so jerky and screwy that they missed as often as they hit. One of them slammed right into Lee, knocking him back a step. The jounin automatically grabbed the drunkard by the shoulders and restrained him. Sakura restrained the other one.

"What on earth is the matter?" Lee demanded. "Why are you fighting like this in the street?"

"He called me something stupid!" The one restrained by Sakura yelled awkwardly, struggling uselessly against her restraints. "He called me a juicy, microwaveable old frog!"

"A what?" Lee's eyebrows folded inward in confusion. "Microwaveable...?"

"What the hell is a microwaveable?!" The other drunkard yelled back. "I didn't call you no slimy, wicromaveable dog, you sot!"

"Go dry up, both of you," Sakura grumbled. "It's not even noon, it's far too early in the day to be that drunk!" She released the drunk she was holding at the same time that Lee released his.

"We need to keep going," Lee said with a disgusted twist of his mouth when one of the drunkards started retching like he was going to throw up. "That is revolting."

"I don't think I've ever been _that_ drunk," Sakura said, glancing back at the two drunkards, who were now being shooed off the street by Inoichi.

"Nor I," Lee grimaced. "But then again, we all know what happens when you mix alcohol with me."

"Unpleasantness tends to ensue," Sakura giggled, quoting Gaara on that one. (Sakura had asked the Kazekage if he drank ever; his response had been; "Considering what I have seen what alcohol does to a person, no. Unpleasantness tends to ensue." He had looked pointedly at Lee, with just the slightest, slightest hint of amusement.)

"What on earth _is_ a microwaveable though, I wonder," Lee pondered after a few minutes, as they came closer to the administrative building. By now the stairs were in view.

"Lee," Sakura said patiently. "Those men were drunk."

"Yes I am aware of that."

"They were so drunk they couldn't even see straight, or talk straight. People who are that drunk don't make sense. He was making up words."

"I am very much aware of that, Sakura. I was just musing."

"Loveable idiot," she laughed and socked him in the shoulder.

The rest of the distance was passed in companionable silence. They ascended the stairs and in short order were standing before the door to Tsunade-sama's office. Lee rapped lightly on the red wooden door, and Tsunade's answering call invited them both in.

"Ah! Great timing! Come in, come in, I'm pushed for time." The Hokage waved them both in. Shizune stood by the corner of Tsunade's desk, serving her a mug of tea. As the two jounin came in, Sakura noticed someone else in the room, standing by the window, looking out over the village. Even without the distinctive white clothing and extremely long sable hair, she would have recognized that physical bearing in an instant. After all, he had been Lee's teammate for more than eleven years, and had been a highly respected jounin for a good nine years now. Hyuuga Neji wasn't hard to recognize, even facing away from them.

"Good morning, Neji," she said to the jounin, who turned and nodded acknowledgingly to them. He looked troubled.

"Okay," Tsunade said, "I'll make this brief. This whole mess with the daimyou and the other villages attacking Suna has gotten messy, so I'm going to have to go to the Daimyou's court directly and make some noise. I don't think Gaara's going to be able to leave his village for a while, so I'm going to have to do it for him. I'd send Naruto, but he's got a genin team now, and besides, I think I need to threaten to smash some faces myself. This is something I think a kage needs to do, not a kage's chosen messenger. Therefore, Sakura, I'm afraid you'll need to take over caring for Fuuin no Sanami while I'm gone. I'm also leaving Jiraiya here, and I've ordered him to stay in the village until I get back, so if there are any problems, there are two Hokage-level people here who can defend the village."

Tsunade stood up. "I'm not leaving right this instant, of course, I'll be leaving first thing in the morning tomorrow. I haven't decided whether I'm taking Shizune or not."

"You will be taking some ANBU with you, right?" Lee arched his eyebrows. "Even you, Hokage-sama, should not travel that far alone."

"Don't be an idiot, Eyebrows," the Hokage waved her hand, "Not that it's any of your concern, being that I _am_Hokage and am capable of taking care of myself, but I am taking three ANBU and either Shizune, Kakashi or Yumiya. Haven't decided which. Probably Kakashi. But anyway, Sakura, I want you to go with Shizune, and she'll give you the run-down on Sanami's condition and her current treatments. Even if I leave Shizune here, she's going to have to run the entire hospital in my absense, so I'll need you to concentrate on Sanami. As for _you_, Lee, the reason I called you here is that I'm going to work on your Gates."

"Pardon?" Lee blinked as Sakura accepted her orders from the Hokage and waited for Shizune to finish.

"I did some reading and I think that I can do some repairs to your damaged Gates. Based on Neji's detailed descriptions and sketches, it looks to me like your problem is a deterioration of the chakra channels that hold the Gates in place, either open or closed -- the 'hinges' if you will. What I'm going to try and do is reestablish those, to prevent further deterioration, and to hopefully restore vitality to that Fifth Gate. I'm not sure I can do much about that Seventh Gate, it's a very dangerous one to mess with. I hate it when you use them, but I do understand that they're your only trump card, and if I can prevent the final Gate from being forced open unintentionally, well, I should do so."

"You can do that?" Lee gaped.

Tsunade smirked. "Just who do you think I am, Lee? I'm not just the Hokage, you know. I'm the Medical Sennin. You of all people ought to know that I have a knack for beating the odds in unusual healing techniques. Now come along, we haven't got all day. This isn't going to happen in one session, either; I'm going to have to go slowly and assess the exact extent of the damage, which is why I have Neji along today."

"Come along, Sakura," Shizune said gently.

"Oh, before you go Hokage-sama, my mom sent these along to you." Sakura belatedly remembered the delivery she was supposed to make. "She said you placed this order this morning, and she has so many orders right now she couldn't spare the extra hands to have Ayame deliver them, so she asked me."

"That's fine," Tsunade smiled. "Leave them on my desk. I'll arrange payment with your mother later."

With little other interaction, Tsunade shooed Shizune and Sakura out of her office and began her examination of Lee.

Sakura remained quiet, consumed by her thoughts and the increasingly acute aches and stabs in her abdomen, signalling that this month's menses were not going to pass quietly, as she followed Shizune out of the building, down the steps and across the street to the hospital.

"Are you okay, Sakura?" Shizune inquired as they stopped by the front doors of the hospital building. "You're really quiet today."

"I'm just..." Sakura winced as she took a misstep and jolted her innerds. "It's that time of month, and I'm feeling less than perfect, as you probably can tell."

"Ah," Shizune nodded, understanding. "I'll brew you some herbal tea for that, if you like. It's a pity you have to suffer through that so much now. The contraceptives really helped curb that, didn't they?"

With that said, they entered the hospital and swung to the left, heading toward the wing dedicated to Sanami's treatment.

The Suna-nin was wide awake, sitting up in the bed, with some scrolls spread about her on the covers. Her hitai-ate was slung around her neck; she refused to take it off entirely. Her hair was pulled back into a high ponytail. She looked much brighter and more alert than Sakura recalled her ever looking since falling ill.

"How are you feeling today?" Shizune asked as they came into the room.

"Much better, thank you. Oh, good morning, Sakura-dono."

"Sakura is here to tend to your medical care for a few days, Sanami," Shizune said. "Hokage-sama is going to have to go to the Daimyou's court to knock some sense into their heads, and if I don't go with her, it'll be up to me to run the hospital." The older kunoichi then rummaged around in a desk drawer until she came up with a thick medical chart. "Here, Sakura. Familiarize yourself with this. You're familiar with Tsunade-sama's chicken-scratch writing, so you shouldn't have any trouble, but let me know if you have any questions. I'm going to go make the rounds."

There was a whiffling noise at the door and the padding of large, soft feet as Eiseimaru, one of the Inuzuka family's dogs who seemed to specialize in assisting patients in their rehabilitation, came strolling in. He was a medium-sized reddish dog with short, sleek fur and bright, yellow-gold eyes. For reasons not fully divulged by the Inuzuka family, this dog seemed to radiate a calming energy, one that helped patients to relax, in turn stimulating self-healing. Thus, he spent a lot of time in the hospital, making the rounds and offering comfort to patients.

Kiba was the Inuzuka family dog trainer, his mother was the family dog breeder, and his sister was the village's number one veterinarian. Eiseimaru was a prodigy dog of a sort, a culmination of the efforts of all three, and one of Inuzuka Tsume's finest breeding results. At present, the dog was undergoing training from Kiba to enable him to assist medic-nins in healing jutsus. But for right now, if nothing else, the dog's mere presence was remarkably soothing to many patients, hence the reason he was allowed to wander anywhere in the hospital (except the operating rooms, simply because of the strict level of hygiene required there).

Eiseimaru padded over and gave the kunoichi all cursory sniffs, then curled up on a blanket that was heaped on the floor. Shizune excused herself to go make the rounds, while Sakura pulled up a stool beside the hospital bed and set to reading through the chart from the beginning.

She quickly ascertained that Shizune had exaggerated about the amount of writing by the Hokage, since the majority of the notes on the chart pages was done in cramped, neat handwriting that she recognized, after the week in Suna, as belonging to Baki. Occasionally there were notes in other hands, one of which she was pretty sure, based on the brutal brevity of what was noted and the heedlessness of margins involved, was Gaara's writing.

True to Baki's reputation, the chart was jam packed with extensive documentation, covering every last detail. Looking at the chart as a whole and with the benefit of hindsight to aid, she almost couldn't believe that they didn't catch the cancer sooner.

"Hmm, that was stupid, now I see what I did wrong," Sanami muttered as she sifted through a pair of large scrolls. Sakura blinked as she looked up.

"What are you doing anyway?"

"Research," Sanami said. "I can't stand to be completely idle. So, if I can't help Kazekage-sama out directly, at least I can continue my research on making better and more versatile scrolls." She picked on scroll up. "These are some old scrolls I've done over the years that haven't worked out to my satisfaction, so I'm looking at them now to see where I might've gone wrong. Learning from my mistakes, you know?"

Sakura just nodded and returned to reading over the chart, noting that the consistency of Sanami's symptoms, as documented, should have raised some kind of alarm in someone's head back in Suna.

After a little while, Sanami sighed, rolled the scrolls up and set them aside. "I need to get up and move around, my legs are cramping up again. Do you suppose you could give me a hand?"

"Sure." Sakura set the chart aside and gave her a hand out of the hospital bed. Sanami wobbled a little on her feet, but she looked intensely relieved to be upright. The first thing she did was hobble to the nearby window and lean against it, looking out over the street. Sakura started to wonder if Sanami had made up that excuse about a cramp in her leg, just to get up so she could look out the window.

"I like this village," the kunoichi said wistfully. "I like greenery. This village is so beautifully green even in deep winter. Reminds me of home." She wobbled again as she shifted. Sakura steadied her.

"Home?"

"Yeah," Sanami sighed nostalgically. "I'm from the Kusa no Kuni. You didn't know that?"

"Silly me, I thought you were from Sunagakure."

"Well, I am, in a way. That's where I was schooled as a shinobi. But I'm not from the Kaze no Kuni."

Sakura blinked at her uncomprehendingly.

Sanami patiently elaborated. "My brothers and I moved to Sunagakure for schooling in their ninja school because Kusagakure wouldn't accept us. We had a choice between Konoha and Suna, and our father chose Suna because he liked the Kazekage better than the Hokage. So, yeah, I bear the symbol of Suna because it's my home village as a shinobi, but my heart still yearns for the grasslands sometimes." She chuckled softly. "Ever wonder why my totem animal -- and my summon -- is a horse? We were an agricultural family working for a landed clan who raised cattle and grew grain. Our livelihoods depended on our horses."

"I think you should go back to bed now," Sakura said gently. "You're in no condition to be wandering around."

"I know, I know," Sanami murmured, turning away from the window. "I just wanted to get that kink out of my calf-muscle." She went back to the bed without a fuss and situated herself, resuming her work with the scrolls. Sakura returned to reading over the medical chart. Eiseimaru eventually got up and wandered out of the room, continuing his rounds.

As she finished reading the chart, Sakura set it aside and digested the information. There was something in Tsunade's notes at the end that made her wonder if using extract of burdock would help or not. It was worth a try.

She stood up, wincing as her insides twisted themselves into a giant Gordian knot in protest. Sanami glanced up at her.

"I'm going to go see if we have any extract of burdock here in the hospital; if not, I'll put in an order for it. Something is telling me to try it on you, it might help. Not sure why. I'll be right back."

Sanami nodded in acceptance. "I'm feeling better today than I've felt in months. Don't worry about me right now; and anyway, Eiseimaru's nearby."

"I won't be long. I know exactly where I'm looking."

"Don't worry about me, Sakura-dono," the Suna-nin grinned, "I'm hardly on my deathbed at the moment."

Sakura stepped out into the hallway, and noticed that the red dog was sitting about twenty meters away, just watching.

"I'll be back soon, Eiseimaru," she said as she headed for the stairwell. She saw the dog return to Sanami's room in her absense.

As she reached the ground floor, she heard a commotion near the front door. Curious, she diverted her path, heading for the commotion.

As she reached the reception desk, she saw a flurry of movement, a flash of orange and green, streaked with black and dark red. As she got closer, she recognized Gai-sensei and Naruto, both standing in tense poses, as if ready to react to anything.

As she came closer, she saw that someone was prostrate on the floor, and Shizune was applying her Shousen no Jutsu to that person. A few more steps and Sakura was in range. She noticed that Gai and Naruto both had lacerations on their arms, and their sleeves were shredded. The person being healed by Shizune was none other than Narita Yumiya, who was bleeding profusely from a number of lacerations all over her.

"What on earth happened?!" Sakura blurted out.

"It's that attack I've been helping her with," Gai said tersely. "She lost control of it, and it backfired on her. I wish she'd give up on Tora Tatsumaki, because it's so damned dangerous. It's basically a vortex of razor-sharp fuuton chakra; if you get caught in the middle of it, it rips you to shreds. That's what happened to her. She ended up right in the middle of it and lost consciousness, and I couldn't overpower it. I don't have strong enough wind chakra to counter the flow. Luckily Naruto heard the noise and came to see what was wrong, and he managed to stop it."

Yumiya, who had been unconscious, started to groggily return to her senses, moaning petulantly as she did.

"I've stopped the hemorrhaging," Shizune said as she wiped her brow wearily. "Yumiya can heal her own wounds once she comes around. She's not in any danger -- probably wasn't anyway, since you guys stopped the damage from increasing, but at least this way she'll be fine in less than twenty-four hours. I think it'll be best if you just take her home, Gai. She's lost a lot of blood, but it's not dangerous. She's a Narita; they're used to losing blood, and their bodies are adapted to accomodate that."

Gai grunted in acquiescence and stooped to scoop his roommate up into his arms, doing so with a tenderness that betrayed his feelings for her. Sakura felt a stab of sympathy for the jounin; he was very much in this one alone. Yumiya had stated to Sakura in such a way as to remove any doubt that she had absolutely no romantic designs on him, couldn't possibly even stir them up.

Naruto grumbled about his shredded sleeves, though the lacerations on his arm were already nearly completely healed thanks to his accelerated healing because of the Kyuubi.

"Naruto," Gai-sensei said as he paused at the door. "That was impressive, that speed you showed in overpowering that attack. If you've got some free time, I'd like to test your speed and reactions. You might be a good sparring partner for Yumiya with this attack, since you can cancel it out, and you have that accelerated healing."

"Thanks, Gai-sensei," Naruto said with a shrug, "but I'm not likely to have any free time for a while. I've got a team now, and Obaachan is going to be out of the village for a bit, so someone's going to have to take care of things while she's gone, and I don't think it's wise to leave it all to Ero-Sennin."

"I'm sure you can make some time," Gai said confidently. "It doesn't take long."

"I need to be getting back to my team," Naruto said as he pushed open the door, held it open and allowed Gai to sidle out with Yumiya in his arms. He waved goodbye to Sakura as he left.

"Sakura, is something wrong?" Shizune asked as she stood up wearily.

"Oh, no, I was just going to check the supplies, to see if we have any extract of burdock. It seems to me like her blood could use the boost. Anyway, I was coming to do that, and I heard the commotion and got curious."

"I don't know if we have any _extract_ of burdock," Shizune said with a tip of her head as she wracked her brain, "but I know there are about a half-dozen burdock plants in the greenhouse."

Sakura then abruptly wobbled on her feet as she was hit by a spasm of vertigo. She very nearly collapsed, except that a pair of strong hands clasped her waist and held her up. They were not her husband's hands; she knew his touch, and those hands were not his. She instinctively pulled away.

"Easy, Sakura," a dry voice said. "I'm not going to grope you. I can think of two people who'd want my head on a pike if I tried it."

Sakura whipped around, startled to hear Neji's voice. The jounin was smirking, his lavendar-white eyes sparkling with mischief. The Hokage was right behind him, with Lee trailing a few meters back.

"Whoa, what the hell happened here?" Tsunade's eyebrows lifted at the sight of the pristine tile smeared with blood and dirt.

"Yumiya screwed up, got hit by her own attack," Shizune reported. "It wasn't life-threatening, but it would've put her out of commission for a few days had I not closed off the hemorrhaging."

Tsunade shook her head in disgust. "That idiot. She doesn't know when to back off. If I could just smack the hell out of the head of her family, maybe it would calm her down, convince her not to be such an idiot about things."

"Doubt it," Neji said, stretching his limbs. "I've heard stories about her exploits from Tenten. She's a lot like Gai-sensei in her gusto, but lacks his luck and common sense."

"And besides," Shizune said pragmatically, "she's still got other things that haunt and drive her. Namely the death of her partner. Gai has said he thinks that that single incident ruined her as a shinobi more than any other."

"Hmm," Tsunade nodded in acceptance. "She certainly teeters on the edge of catastrophe, that's for sure. Sakura, how did your examination go?"

"It went fine, but I have a question, Shishou," Sakura said, "before I forget, do you think extract of burdock will help Sanami-san's condition? Or dog-rose?"

"Extract of burdock? What, for her scalp?"

"No, not oil of burdock, I mean to be administered intravenously."

"That's an interesting possibility. Try it, see if it works. I don't think it'll harm her. Or rather, I'll try it. I think you can take your husband home now. And here," she held out a couple of packets of freshly mixed herbs. "Brew these into a tea for your cramps and nausea."

Sakura accepted the packets graciously, wondering exactly how it was that Tsunade knew about her problems this month. The only person she'd said anything to was Shizune...

Lee blinked uncomprehendingly at first the Hokage and then at his wife. Neji made a strange noise as he forcefully wrestled down a snicker. "Lee, you're not that naive or innocent."

"Is it that time already?" Lee seemed incredulous. After a moment, something dawned on him. "So that is why..." He snapped out of it when he noticed several people staring peculiarly at him, and Sakura looking downright annoyed, if not hostile. "Ahem. Nevermind."

_I should've known_, Sakura thought to herself. _He knows me better than I know myself. He probably picked up on it before it happened. I get really moody before my menses start; I should've realized he'd notice that, even if he didn't realize the reason for it._

Oh well.

"Extract of burdock, huh?" Tsunade mused. "I don't think I'd've thought of that. What made you think of it?"

Sakura blinked. "Well, her chart said she's been having troubles with water retention, and poor circulation. We used extract of burdock on Mrs. Yamanaka a few months ago when she complained of similar problems."

"I'll certainly give it a try," the Hokage said. "You're good, Sakura."

"Shishou, I can take care of it -- " Sakura tried to say, but Tsunade put her hands on her hips and gave her an incredulous look -- the kind of look that said _'Are you really that stupid?'_

"Go home, Sakura. I'm supposed to give you some days off. It's bad enough I'm forced to employ you in my absence."

"Shishou, you know I don't like being idle. I get bored easy!"

Neji, who had been trying to keep his laughter contained, lost it at that point, slumping against the wall and laughing so hard that tears came out of his eyes. Shizune was hiding her laughter behind her hands, and Tsunade was trying to squelch her own laughter.

"Listen closely, Lee-kun," the Hokage said with some effort, deliberately using the informal honorific. "Since the two of you are on honeymoon, if she gets bored or idle, _you're doing it wrong!_"

It took a moment to sink in, but when it did, both Sakura and Lee turned bright red. In fact, if she weren't so mortified herself, Sakura might've taken some amusement in Lee's embarrassment.

"Go on, you two," Tsunade shooed them. "I'm done with both of you, so just go home and do whatever comes naturally. And Sakura, remember: the shower's easy to clean." The innuendo was almost visible, it was so thick.

"Shishou!" Sakura's jaw dropped open. She'd seriously doubted she could be any more mortified, but alas she had been proven wrong. She now wanted to crawl under a rock. Lee clapped his hands to his face, as if to hide his fierce blush. At length, he pulled his hands away and looked at her.

"Let's go," she said, trying gallantly to force the blush down. "If that's what they're going to do while we're here, I think we can make ourselves scarce."

He nodded in mute acceptance, giving the laughing Hokage a suspicious look. He then looked over at Neji, who was helplessly howling with laughter. "A fine troublemaker you are, Neji, encouraging that."

"You two brought that on yourselves, I didn't do a damned thing!" The jounin retorted.

The two of them beat a hasty retreat, with Sakura muttering that it was a good thing that Jiraiya-sama wasn't around to heckle them. Because Sakura seemed a little angrier than he really wanted to deal with alone, he suggested they stop by her parents' bakery.

"By the way, Sakura," he said as they turned down the street, heading toward the bakery. "I heard from Neji that Anko-san stayed with Sasuke-kun overnight, and she managed to convince him to stay in the village. He was planning to leave as soon as he gets better."

"I wonder why she did?" Sakura was grateful for some other topic to discuss than their sex life. That kind of thing just wasn't appropriate for public discussion, dammit!

"I presume because she was once under the influence of Orochimaru," Lee said with a shrug, "but I do not know. The point of this is that Sasuke-kun will be staying. Neji was saying that this is a good thing, because if Sasuke-kun leaves again, Hokage-sama will have no choice but to send hunter-nins after him."

Sakura froze mid-step. "What?"

"Sasuke-kun has a genuine, fully-evolved _kekkei genkai_. And he is the last of his clan. Hokage-sama cannot risk that getting away again. Naruto-kun has said he will not chase after Sasuke-kun again if he leaves; that means that if Sasuke-kun leaves, the only remaining option is hunter-nins."

"God," Sakura blinked rapidly, trying to calm her frantic heart; the mere thought of Sasuke being subjected to hunter-nins frightened her, because whatever she might think of him now, he was still a Konoha ninja, and to some degree he would always be dear to her, if for no other reason than she had spent so many years of her life in pursuit of him. "I never thought about that."

She noticed her shadow as they started walking again. It seemed far too long for her recollection of the passage of time. "What time is it?"

"About three," Lee said nonchalantly. Sakura nearly stumbled in surprise.

"Really? Good god, this day is going way too fast."

He put his arm about her shoulders and the two of them resumed their walk, by and by coming to the Haruno bakery and stopping in.

* * *

Sakura rubbed her eyes wearily as she peered out of the window into the deepening night. It just so happened that the way the moonlight fell, she had a very clear view of the Hokage monument on the mountainside, and the moonbeams seem to alight in particular on Sandaime-sama's carven features. The peace and quiet of Konoha was probably Sarutobi's greatest legacy and gift to the village, if one thought about it. 

She was looking forward to going to bed; her menorrhagia was uncommonly heavy tonight, making her exceptionally tired and weak feeling. She and Lee had stayed at her parents' long enough to have dinner, and had come home only an hour ago, both of them dragging in exhaustion. And yet, they weren't done yet. They still had their reports from the Suna mission to write up.

Sakura had only just finished writing hers up, and she was helping Lee write his up, correcting his atrocious spelling. His report was relatively brief in comparison to hers, since he had really only been active for a couple of days -- the first day, when he'd taken down Sasuke, and the last two, when his body had healed enough to do some light work. Nevertheless, it was taking time to write because of his tendency to run his words together, and his penchant for using all katakana.

"There!" Lee said triumphantly. "Finally done!" He handed the paperwork over to Sakura to give it a final look-over. She scanned through it, wincing in a couple of spots where he had mispelled some words, and decided not to press it. He had already made quite a mess of the paperwork as it was with his constant writing and erasing. If she felt better in the morning, she'd rewrite it for him.

As she handed it back to him, her insides twisted again in angry protest.

"I'm going to bed, Lee. I really don't feel well." She dropped a kiss into his glossy black hair. He snaked an arm around her hips, pulling her close to him in an impromptu hug.

"I will be there to join you in a little while," he said. "I think I should pick up the place a bit though." He eyeballed their travel-packs from yesterday, still discarded in one corner.

She laughed softly and toyed with his hair before taking her leave, taking her mug of tea with her as she did. She paused at the doorway to the bedroom, watching him as he tidied up, before retiring completely to the bedroom. She moved into the bathroom and took care of business as usual, yet again, then changed into a night gown and crawled into bed, sighing with relief as she sank into the mattress.

Gradually she drifted off, teetering on the edge of sleep, until Lee finally came in, changed into his pajamas and crawled into bed with her. As he curled himself around her, he murmured into her ear; "I love you, Sakura." And then he fell right asleep.

She envied him that ability to fall right asleep.

Outside, the nearly-full moon's opaline light flickered off the water of the pond near their apartment, casting shadows and figures on the wall. The whole of Konoha soon settled into another night's sleep, with the promise of another day hanging on to the as-yet-unrisen sun. With those comforting thoughts in mind, as well as a brief touch of glee at her near-poetic thought, Sakura drifted off to sleep.

* * *

**Still to come****: "Epilogue: Toward a New Life" wherein all things come full circle at last.**

* * *

**A note about Sakura's "disorders"** dysmenorrhea and menorrhagia are two conditions I suffer from, and they happened to inhibit my getting started on this chapter, as well as delayed the progress of this chapter; thus I chose to add them to the story. (And if you don't know what they are and can't figure them out by context, look 'em up on Wikipedia.) 

**About temperature**: I use the metric system as much as I can in this story, since I'm pretty sure that everywhere except America uses the metric system, so ten degrees centigrade (Celsius) is about 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

* * *

**END NOTES: Terminology, for those who are a bit rusty:  
**"**Geji-mayu**" is what Naruto calls Rock Lee. It translates as "fuzzy eyebrows" or as the English dub anime calls it, "Bushy Brow" and is Naruto's nickname for Lee. He doesn't mean anything rude by it, and Lee doesn't seem to mind.  
A **kunoichi** is a female ninja. It is often used in the series as a synonym for ninja or shinobi, when talking about a female. Thus it's used here sporadically much as it is in the series.  
A _**kekkei genkai**_ is, basically, a "bloodline limit" -- refering to a talent or trait that is passed down genetically. The Sharingan and the Byakugan are the two most well-known _kekkei genkai_ in this series. 

**About the nicknames that the kids use:  
**"**busu**" is Japanese street slang for "ugly girl" though it has stronger connotations in Japanese than "ugly" does in English. I believe, though I'm not positive, that Sai calls Sakura "busu" in the anime. It is prounced "bus" (the second U is mostly silent), hence Shinji's drawing it out. I used it directly as I saw it in a book called Japanese Street Slang by Peter Constantine (C) 1992, ISBN 0-8348-0250-3 -- I recommend this book to anyone interested in the seedy language of Japan.  
"**hekoki**" is Osaka-originated Japanese street slang that basically means "farter" and carries the connotation of "idiot." I thought it looked nicer to put that there than the translation, and since I have kind of based the Narita's off the Kansai-Osaka dialect -- therefore making Yumiya even more tawdry in a way -- I felt this was appropriate for Maiko to call Shinji. Also got this from Japanese Street Slang.

**Hidden Villages:**  
**Konohagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Leaves" is the principle village of the Fire Country (Hi no Kuni), and is headed by the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade.  
**Sunagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Sand" is the principle village of the Wind Country (Kaze no Kuni), and is headed by the Godaime Kazekage, Gaara.  
**Kirigakure**: "The Hidden Village of Mist" is the principle village of the Water Country (Mizu no Kuni), and is headed by the Mizukage.  
**Iwagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Rocks" is the principle village of the Earth Country (Tsuchi no Kuni), and is headed by the Tsuchikage.  
**Kumogakure**: "The Hidden Village of Clouds" is the principle village of the Lightning Country (Rai no Kuni), and is headed by the Raikage.  
**Kusagakure**: "The Hidden Village of Grass"

**Canon technique names:**  
**Asa Kujaku** means "Morning Peacock" and has not yet been officially translated into English (used by Gai)  
**Shousen no Jutsu** literally means "Mystical Palm Technique" and is the ninjutsu technique of choice for most medic-nin. (Used by all medical ninja)

**Invented attack names:**  
**Arashi no Mai no Jutsu** (literally "Dance of Storms Technique") is Yumiya's favorite ninjutsu attack and combines a manipulation of Lightning and Wind.**  
Kaze no Myaku no Jutsu** (literally "Pulse of Wind Technique") is Yumiya's attack which uses dull-edged fuuton chakra to batter or distract an opponent.  
**Tora Tatsumaki**(literally "Tiger Tornado") is Yumiya's incomplete original ninjutsu attack

**Chakra types:**  
**Fuuton**: wind-based chakra; weaker than katon, stronger than raiton  
**Raiton**: lightning-based chakra; weaker than fuuton, stronger than doton  
**Doton**: earth-based chakra; weaker than raiton, stronger than suiton  
**Suiton**: water-based chakra; weaker than doton, stronger than katon  
**Katon**: fire-based chakra; weaker than suiton, stronger than fuuton  
**Mukon**: wood-based chakra; a combination of suiton and doton; useable only by Yamato via his genetic link to the First Hokage.

**Honorific suffixes, for those who are rusty:  
****-chan** is used mostly towards females, and indicates a long-term, close friendship. Generally one only uses it for someone one has known since childhood. From the outset in the canon story, Naruto has always referred to Sakura as Sakura-chan.  
**-dono** is an antiquated suffix that is less formal than _-sama_ but more formal than _-san_. It is often used to express either submission (when used in place of _-san_) or equality (when used in place of _-sama_). In this story, Tsunade uses _-dono_ toward Gaara to indicate their equality in ranks.  
**-kun** is used mostly towards males that are younger. It is a more informal, if you will, form of _-san_, but less intimate than _-chan_. It can be used towards girls, but is not usually.  
**-obaachan** is used to address someone who is much older. In this context, "baa" essentially means "Honorable old woman." It's sometimes translated as "granny" but is actually very respectful, as long as the addressee doesn't mind being referred to as an old woman. The male equivalent is "_-ojiichan_"  
**-oneesan** is used to address a woman who is older than you and with whom you have a relatively close, familial bond, though blood relations aren't necessary. The word "nee" means older sister, "san" is a respectful suffix, and "o" is a modifier that adds respect to the word. Thus, saying "Temari-oneesan" is like saying "Big Sister Temari-san." The male equivalent is "_-oniisan._" Hanabi and Hinata use this with Neji, who is their cousin, to show their blood relation. An alternative, showing more affection, would be "_-(o)niichan_" like Konohamaru uses with Naruto, or "_-oneechan_" like Naruto uses with many older kunoichi  
**-sama** is used to express great respect and humility.  
**-san** is the most generic and safest suffix to use.  
**-sempai** is used to address a superior within an organization. Rather like "brothers" or "sisters" within a cult or coven. Roughly this can mean "senior" versus "junior." This is the "big brother/big sister" term. Its counterpart is "_-kouhai_" but isn't used nearly as much, because calling someone "-kouhai" can be taken as offensive or demeaning if you're not careful.  
**-sensei** is used to address a teacher, instructor, or an expert in a particular art. Also, _-sensei_ is used to address doctors.  
**-shishou** is used to address one's master in a particular art, such as martial arts, or in the case of Sakura, in the healing arts.  
(paraphrased and interpreted from source: Wikipedia's entry on "Japanese Titles")


End file.
